Hi all,

I really don't know who would read this, but I thought I'd put it out there.

If you're reading my other story One and Only, you would know about my OC Roxie, this story is just going more in depth about her story line, since I realised there was a story line there.

TFG

Chapter One

One of the worst days, as well as one of the best days of Nosedive Flashblade's life on Earth started really badly.

First, his alarm clock didn't go off and this caused him to sleep in by two hours. Now, Nosedive and his alarm clock had a tenuous relationship at best. It didn't help that he threw the thing across the room at least twice a month. Hence, why the alarm clock decided to go on strike and not wake him up in time for training. This, normally, wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but seeing as they had a game on Friday night, they were doing extra practices all week.

The situation was remedied when Wildwing, the team's captain and older brother to the still sleeping duck, came in and yelled the nineteen year old awake. Wildwing was not in the best of moods recently, as several anniversaries were fast approaching and that always got him down. It was the anniversary of their arrival on Earth, of when he had ordered the destruction of the gateway generator, and when he had started a relationship with the love of his life, who he hasn't seen since the Saurians invaded. This was enough to get anyone down and cause them to be irritable, but Wildwing had other things on his mind too. He had begun to take a more active and distinct role in how his hockey team was being run. That included the practice schedule as well as all other managerial aspects of the franchise. As well as that, he had been the sole guardian of a teenager for the last three years. Hence, the terrible mood.

This terrible mood was beginning to grate on the teenage drake, as he seemed to always be the receiving end of his brother's anger. Not that he was trying to make him angry, but an eight am practice session for a nineteen year old was asking a little much. And when Nosedive tried to explain this, and the fact that it wasn't his fault that he overslept his brother just snapped.

"I don't care that it didn't go off! I want you upstairs, dressed, and on the ice, ready for practice in fifteen minutes! We're already running twenty minutes late waiting for you!" Wildwing shouted angrily, before turning on his heel and marching from the room.

Nosedive loudly fumed as he got dressed, forgoing the shower as he was already late. He then went into the large kitchen to try and find at least something resembling breakfast. Unfortunately, as he was running late the food that was made by Grin, as one of the few ducks that could cook, was already finished. Nosedive then looked in his personal cabinets and on his shelf in the fridge. And found nothing, as each of the ducks were responsible for stocking their own private pantry. Usually Wildwing would make sure that Nosedive did have some food on hand, but as he had been busy and in a terrible mood he had forgone that responsibility.

The lack of food didn't help Nosedive's bad day. And it didn't soften his growing anger towards his older brother. Not that it should be Wildwing's job to feed him, or make sure that he got anywhere on time. After all, Nosedive was nineteen, and every time Wildwing had tried to baby him recently, he would react badly to it. But, at that moment, everything was mounting and Nosedive felt like a little revenge. So, he took all of the cherry breakfast bars and one ice latte that belonged to his older brother. And instead of heading up to the rink, he sat down to enjoy his breakfast, until Duke came down to get the sullen teenager to come up to practice.

Now, Wildwing was not in the best moods and was being rather short with his younger brother. That was nothing compared to an older drake, who had woken up three hours ago to complete his own personal training. And who didn't appreciate being kept waiting any longer than five minutes. One of the downsides of being a master thief meant that timing mattered a lot. This meant that Duke wasn't too gentle when he grabbed Nosedive by the scruff of the neck and dragged him up to the rink.

The resulting argument and manhandling caused the second major issue of the day. Nosedive left his cell phone on the kitchen table. Normally, this wouldn't be too much of a problem as most of the ducks communicated with the communicators they wore on their wrists. This was also how their manager, Phil, and Captain Klegghorn of the Anaheim Police Force contacted them. This was not the case for Nosedive's human friends, Thrash and Mookie, they contacted Nosedive through the top of the range cell phone that Wildwing had bought him for his last birthday. Again, this normally wouldn't be a problem but as this was to be one of the worst days of Nosedive's life, it actually caused a major problem. As Nosedive failed to receive any of the seven calls, or fifteen messages sent by his best and only friends on the planet.

Once Duke had dragged Nosedive to practice, and Wildwing had lecture the teen some more, the ducks started on their team warm ups. Wildwing, along with their coach, Ian Duncan, put the ducks through a rigorous and intense training session causing many complaints from various members of the team. Especially the youngest member of the team. Which caused another argument between the brothers.

"Hey, just cause you're angry at the world and yourself don't take it out on me!" Nosedive eventually yelled at his older brother before storming off the rink and back towards the elevator. It was about lunch time now, and hopefully the catering crew had delivered their lunch. The rest of the team decided that now was as good of a time as any to take a break. So, everyone but Duke left Wildwing alone on the ice to cool off.

"Don't ya think you were a little hard on the kid?" Duke said as he watched the younger drake store all his hockey pads back into their designated spots in the locker room. The other drake was quiet for quite a long time before he answered with an affirmative.

"Listen, it's not my place to butt in, but maybe you could cut the kid some slack. I mean, he's a good kid and he has had a lot on his plate over the last few years. Same as you. Maybe you both need to take a little break, and just act your age?" Duke said before calling the elevator and intending to leave Wildwing to his solitary thoughts. That was until he heard a ridiculously forlorn cry coming from the elevator.

The two older drakes were then bowled over by Nosedive running full pelt out of the locker room in his street clothes. The teen didn't answer any of the calls from his team mate or brother, both of whom looked very confused and a little concerned. The two went downstairs to try and figure out what had just happened but the other ducks were equally as confused.

"He just looked at his phone, then screamed, then ran out. I have no idea what's up with that kid, he's being completely irresponsible and undependable. He really needs to grow up," Mallory said with a little bit more bite than was needed.

"Hey, now that's not fair. He was just a kid when we came here, and had to grow up quickly. He's allowed to have moments of immaturity," Wildwing said blandly, realising that he really needed to take his own advice. As soon as Nosedive came back he would apologise for his behaviour and try to make it up to him.

Nosedive on the other hand wasn't thinking about anything that was happening in the pond, only on the messages he had received. He ran clear across to the Anaheim Mall, hoping that what had been sent hadn't been true. Unfortunately, when he arrived he saw that it was only too true.

Captain Comics, the comic book store that had been his home away from home on this strange planet and had allowed him to meet two of his best friends, was closed. The door was locked and the lights were out. It looked so dead and lifeless. The only thing that gave any indication that someone had been there, waiting, was a note on the door, addressed to Nosedive.

Nosedive lifelessly picked up the note, and finally noticed the sin on the door. The sign informed everyone that Captain Comics was closed for the indefinite future, until new staff could be found and applicants should contact the owner of the store. This was all written in Mookie's elegant script, something that Thrash and Nosedive always teased her for.

The note that Nosedive eventually read was more informative. It explained to him that the two of them had been trying to call him all morning, but they couldn't wait any longer. That they had been accepted into the Rhode Island School of Design, and had decided to leave early to have a fun trip together. That they were sorry to have not been able to say goodbye, and they were going to miss him like crazy.

It was all Nosedive could actually take and he sank to the floor right outside the door of the closed store. His life sucked at the moment, and it was bringing him down. His schedule was jammed packed, he was always being yelled at by his team mates, his brother seemed to hate him and now his only friends were gone. Plus, there was the fact that he had been, forcible, away from home for three years with no hope of ever getting home.

Nosedive had no idea how long he spent sitting outside the store stewing in his own bad mood, until he heard a lot of cursing and loud noises. He looked up to see what or who was causing such a commotion, and saw that it was an Earth girl.

The girl was not particularly tall, but she was definitely eye catching. She was extremely curvy, but not fat. She was dressed in skin tight jeans, flip-flops and a gypsy top, but the thing that made her really stand out was her hair. It was long, wavy and was rainbow coloured. Now, bright colours were actually rather common hair colours on Puckworld, but he had never seen anything like this on Earth, so far. Plus, the tirade of curse was rather conspicuous and there was the matter that she was throwing everything within reach at the door of the closed store. If it had been any other day than the worst day of his life, then Nosedive would have been quite amused by the spectacle.

It took a few minutes for the rainbow girl to run out of steam and to run out of things to throw. And during this time Nosedive just let her get on with it, and release her anger against the closed door. Once she had finished she finally noticed the tall, brooding avian sitting forlornly by the door.

"Hey," The rainbow girl said sadly as she sat down next to Nosedive.

"Hey," Nosedive replied with equal sadness.

"You wanna go and get something to eat and try to fill our empty souls with really bad pizza instead of trying to feel this heartbreak and betrayal?" rainbow girl asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Sure, I know this really greasy pizza place, but the pizza is actually quite good and it's quite close by," Nosedive answered as he got up from the ground, and offered his hand to help up rainbow girl.

"Tribbiani's? I love that place, they make the best pineapple and shrimp pizza I've ever had. I'm Roxanne, Roxie, by the way," Rainbow girl, Roxie, said as she took his hand and stood up.

"Nosedive, Dive," Nosedive said, grabbing his bag, and the two of them headed off in the direction of the pizza place.

As usual the pizza parlour was completely empty and smelled of day old grease, but this meant that the only two customers could have a very in depth and private conversation. It turned out that they both were good friends with Thrash and Mookie, but it was only through sheer chance that they hadn't met before today. Every party that the couple had, for they were indeed a couple, both Nosedive and Roxie were invited, but one of them always didn't turn up. Nosedive actually remembered Mookie talking about her friend who was their college connection quite a few times, but never really thought about it. It seemed that Roxie was an exceptionally bright girl, who was already working on her Masters at Caltech. So, whenever she came across a comic book geek she would give them the address of Captain Comics and Mookie would give her a discount for every customer she sent their way.

It was also quite refreshing, Nosedive thought, to have someone who didn't really fawn over him for being a sports star. It turned out that not only was Roxie incredible bright, but she was also a very multitalented and independent individual. The rainbow haired girl had been working as a dancer for the last two years, and as a result had met some very famous people. Hence, why she wasn't gushing over meeting a world renowned hockey player and was just treating him like a regular person.

After the two had swapped life stories and found out they had a ridiculous amount of things in common, they then began to vent their frustration about Captain Comics sudden closure. They were both sure that the new managers would never be anywhere as good as Thrash and Mookie. Nosedive then began to tell Roxie about all the other things that had been bothering him for the last few weeks. Once he had finished he felt somehow lighter. Like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. It was nice to have someone listen to him when he talked.

It was during his tirade about how his brother had been using him as a punching bag that his phone went off for the sixth time since they sat down for pizza. Nosedive didn't really need to look at the screen to see who was calling him, he knew it would be Wildwing checking up on him. Yet, he still looked at it before turning it over, not off, and muttering about the evils of siblings.

"Don't even get me started on horrible sibling relations. I have four brothers and two sisters, one of whom is my twin! Try getting some attention in that household! None of them get me at all, and all think I'm a freak of nature. But, that doesn't mean I don't love them. I just don't like them very much. But, it sounds like you guys have been through so much, and love each other, and actually like each other. You really shouldn't write him off, just because he's going through a hard time, and taking it out on you. He's probably super demoralised and run down. Maybe you guys just need to spend some time together, outside of hockey and superhero-ing and just re-bond?" Roxie said while drinking her cola.

"Yeah, maybe," Nosedive said thoughtfully. After all, he knew that his brother was his biggest supporter and always looked out for him, and he shouldn't hold this bad mood against him. As Wildwing usually was quite mellow, and level-headed.

"Listen Duck-Boy, I have to get to rehearsals, but here's my number. Give me a call if you wanna vent or hang out again, kay," Roxie said, gathering up her bag and sweater, and taking out her wallet. But Nosedive refused to let her pay for her part of their meal. He assured her that he made a mint playing hockey, and since she was a college student she should keep her money.

Nosedive also decided that it was time to head home and talk to his brother about what had happened that day. So, he gathered up his things and walked Roxie to her car. The two then said goodbye and Nosedive watched the rainbow haired girl drive away with a smile on his beak.

When he got back to the Pond he was surprised to find it empty, apart from his brother who was alternating between pacing around the rec room and sitting down to work on the training schedule and contracts. It took him a few moments to realise that his younger brother had walked into the room, but when he did he jumped up and tried to say something, only to have it die on his beak. It was a nervous habit of his, getting tongue tied, though it didn't happen often. Nosedive often found this quite amusing, but the love of Wildwing's life, Ella, found the quality endearing. And right now, Nosedive had to agree with her.

"Where is everyone?" Nosedive eventually asked. Hopefully starting on a neutral topic would break the ice. And it seemed that Wildwing was thankful of the opening.

"They all decided to go out to eat. I think Tanya and Mallory are going to go to a movie, but Duke and Grin might be going to some classical music thing," Wildwing said looking down at his work.

"Listen, Dive, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have spoken to you the way I did, or treated you like that. I've been a pretty lousy brother, and a pretty terrible team captain," Wildwing said plainly, sounding a little run down and defeated. It seemed that Roxie was right about how Wildwing was feeling.

"I'm sorry too, I've been a right brat recently. Maybe we need to just re-bond outside of hockey?" Nosedive said with a slight smile on his beak, which his brother didn't completely understand. But he was so relieved that his brother had forgiven him that he didn't bother to think more about it.

So, the two brothers decided to order in some Chinese food and watch an entire horror movie franchise in one sitting. Something that they had done quite often when they first arrived on Earth. And, when the others arrived back from their evenings out they just left the brothers to their bonding. The two Flashblade brothers also managed to have a heart to heart, between teenagers getting gutted. It helped that Wildwing had taken off the Mask, so he was just Wing again, rather than the team captain. They made a deal to try and get in some sibling bonding time at least once a week, so that they could get all the things that were festering out before they had another major blow out.

By the time Nosedive got to his room it was a little after one in the morning, but he still felt wide awake. It had been such a draining day, and he felt like he was going to be wired for the next few hours. As he was undressing for bed and his comic book reading time he found the card that Roxie had given him, with her number on it. Nosedive regarded the card for a while before grabbing his cell phone and typing in a new message and sending it.

He doubted that he would get a message from her, but a few minutes later he heard the chirping chime of an incoming message.

"Hey, Duck-Boy, good to hear that everything worked out well," the message read. And, Nosedive couldn't help but send another one, which was answered fairly promptly again. Before he realised it he had had an hour long conversation through text message.

As Nosedive was lying in his bed waiting for sleep to overtake him, he couldn't help but smile to himself. Yes, this had been one of the worst days of his young life since arriving on Earth, but it also turned into one of the best. He had met a new friend and his relationship with his brother had deepened. All in all a pretty good day.

Okay, this story doesn't really have much of a time frame or plan. Just chapters as and when I think of them.

please rate and review.

TFG