Bonjour, Corsair
"Hey Mei! How was shopping?"
As Mei entered the hotel, she was greeted by a smiling Tia. The blonde waved and moved closer.
"Oh! Not very good I see." Tia nodded down at Mei's hands.
Confused, Mei's brow crumpled, and then she flexed her hands…there was nothing in them. Usually she came back to the hotel holding at least ten bags in each hand. Oh no the teen cursed inwardly I must have left them when Stevens grabbed me.
"Um…" She looked up at Tia who was smiling at her still. "Yeah, no. Didn't go very well. Paparazzi and all that; put me off."
"Ah," Tia nodded. "Those guys can be annoying. I hope your day went alright though? Despite the lack of clothes?"
Mei smiled at her and then fell into step. The pair began walking to the elevator.
"Yeah, it was actually pretty good, I met-" She stalled.
Did she really want Tia to know about Stevens? Right now, it felt like a dream. Mei Kilas knew all about the tunnels under Genesis' main streets. The only people who knew that was she and the Pirates.
Tia was looking at her with interest. "Who'd you meet?" She enquired innocently.
Mei turned back to her, eyebrows raised. "Hm?" She replied.
Tia smiled, looking a little puzzled. "You said you met someone?"
"Oh!" Mei exclaimed. "Oh, oh yeah. I met, um, I met Sonny…briefly."
"Oh really?" Tia's brow creased even further and she watched Mei sceptically for a while. If there was one thing Tia definitely was, it was intuitive- she could tell Mei had just lied…but why? "That's…nice. Are you going to tell D'jok?"
Mei smiled widely at her. "Of course." She replied.
The two rode the elevator in silence for a while and then Tia turned to look at Mei again. "Mei…how are you and D'jok? I know the modelling has picked up quite a bit recently and you're very busy…" She trailed off meaningfully.
The whole team had heard Mei and D'jok arguing fiercely. It almost always started with D'jok trying to exercise his right as team captain; telling Mei she needed to attend training sessions more as she was a footballer first and a model second and then it would always end with the pair of them screaming tirades of hate at each other.
Mei stiffened slightly. "We'll work it out," she muttered. "He just needs to understand that I sometimes need some time away from the football…and from him."
Tia put a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "I'm sure everything will work out. It's not like we're in the middle of a cup anyway."
Mei nodded. "Exactly. I'll be at training all the time during the next cup! He just acts like I don't care at all, when obviously I do."
Tia squeezed her friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, we all know you do and D'jok does too, I'm sure of it."
Mei smiled at her friend and then opened her arms for a hug, which Tia reciprocated.
"You're the best Tia." Mei smiled.
Tia grinned at her. "I try," she replied.
The doors opened. "Oh and Micro-Ice has been on the flux candy, just a heads up."
Mei groaned. "Really? Who keeps giving him that stuf-"
"Mei and Tia! Hi! Want to come help me build a fort?" Micro-Ice bounced into view, exploding out of the living room and smiling widely at them.
Both Tia and Mei laughed.
"No Micro-Ice." Tia negated, chuckling.
"Awh!" The small boy moaned. "Why is everyone no fun around here?"
"You can build your fort later," Aarch's voice suddenly entered the equation. He came up behind Micro-Ice and slapped a hand onto his shoulder, smiling at the two females before him. "It's time for some training. Mei, you're back just in time."
Mei smiled at her coach.
"Right everyone, go get changed," Aarch exclaimed. "And Micro-Ice go wake Ahito up will you? I don't think sleeping under the radiator is a good idea."
Mei and Tia laughed and then began following Aarch to the holo-trainer as Micro-Ice rushed off to save Ahito from being burnt alive.
Later on, the full squad of the Snowkids were standing in the holo-trainer preparing for whatever training exercise Aarch had ready for them. Mei hadn't spoken to D'jok yet, but they'd exchanged a small smile between themselves- so the atmosphere amongst the team was a good one.
"Right then kids," Aarch's voice boomed out over the pitch, and the Snowkids tensed, preparing themselves. "Today's exercise is going to be about defending. Particularly, defending against strikers,"
A hologram of Luur appeared on the pitch- a few feet away from the Snowkids. He had a nasty grin on his face and the ball at his feet.
"One at a time, I want you all to have a go at tackling Luur. Ahito, you head to the goal to prepare for any shots that may result from a failure to successfully tackle Luur. Once we're done with Luur, we're going to move on through all the star strikers of respective teams. And yes even strikers need to be good at tackling D'jok and Micro-Ice,"
D'jok and Micro-Ice stopped messing about and immediately stood straight, grinning hastily.
"Thran, you're up first,"
The older twin gave the sky a thumbs up and then moved forwards. Luur rolled the ball forward slightly with one foot and then started running. Thran braced himself. Luur sent forwards the heat of Xenon and Thran was stuck in his bracing position. His team mates winced.
"You've got to attack these strikers head on!" Came Aarch's voice. "Mei, you go,"
Luur disappeared and then reappeared in his previous position. Mei breathed in deeply, watching him with determined eyes. The lizard man began running forwards, the ball at his feet. Mei ran to meet him. He tried to swerve out of her way, but she kept at him, finally managing to stick a foot in and sending the ball skirting away. The hologram roared aggressively.
"That's right Mei! Well done!" Aarch congratulated.
Mei smirked and strutted back to her team mates, who were smiling and cheering her.
"Great going Mei." D'jok smiled and Mei rewarded him with her own smile back.
It was Rocket's turn next. The midfielder barely allowed Luur to move before he had flipped behind him using the Breath and deftly kicked the ball clear of the alien's feet.
Soon enough everyone was growing used to tackling Luur head on. Everyone was aware, however, that hologram Luur couldn't actually compare to real Luur…with real Luur it always felt like you were going to have your ass whooped and your head bitten off…as Micro-Ice had so eloquently put it.
After Luur it was Warren. Everyone handled him with relative ease- the striker was growing older and D'jok and the others had watched his moves so many times that they knew them off by heart by now.
Then it was Sinedd. He proved a little tricky as his hologram would suddenly burst out into little spurts of skill. Mei, it appeared, was a natural at slide tackling him. D'jok too was good at getting the ball off his enemy…though not always in the 'legal' way. Tia, also, proved good at apprehending the ball of the Shadow striker. Micro-Ice, sadly, allowed Sinedd to get past him and the hologram shot hard, the ball flying into the net, through Ahito's hands.
Then it was the number nine Ryker Jaknok who Micro-Ice, for some reason, proved adept at tackling. It was clear though, who was the best at handling the strikers. Mei and Rocket were handling them all the best, closely followed by Mark.
The next striker however, wrecked up Mei's perfect record completely. Stevens appeared on the ball and Mei watched, entranced, as the hologram rolled its shoulders in preparation. He kicked the ball forward slightly and then paused, as if watching her. Mei's eyes widened and she found herself blushing, despite the fact she was well aware it was a hologram.
"Mei, what are you doing?" D'jok demanded as the hologram suddenly burst forward, kicking the ball lithely round the brunette.
Mei, with shocked eyes, turned and watched helplessly as Stevens blasted the ball into the bottom right corner of the net. There was silence and the rest of her team watched her in confusion.
She raised her hand apologetically. "S…sorry!" She called. "I zoned out."
"It happens!" Ahito called from the goal, before yawning loudly.
Mei sent a meek smile the goalkeeper's way and then began walking back to her team mates, her cheeks burning red. Get a hold of yourself Mei! She scolded herself.
"Are you ok?" Yuki asked once Mei reached them. "You've gone all red. Are you ill?"
Mei placed her hands on her cheeks and shook her head. "I don't think so," she replied. "Just a little worn out."
D'jok was watching her with a raised eyebrow. "We've only been training for 45 minutes." He remarked.
Mei's nose wrinkled in annoyance. "I know." She spat back.
The rest of the team went silent; they were used to these sorts of interactions by now, but that didn't make them any less awkward. Mei and D'jok didn't need much to be at each other's throats…not anymore. Thankfully, Aarch's voice rang out again, distracting everyone from the beginnings of the argument.
"Keep moving!" He called, and Mark went forth to meet Stevens.
After training, Mei rushed off quickly to have a shower- not in the mood to hang around near D'jok, who she still felt annoyed at. Even so the girl ripped off her training top and quickly followed with her bra, glowering at herself in the mirror I was pretty stupid in training today; behaving like a smitten little school girl. Ridiculous. She jumped into the shower, letting the warmth beat down on her.
Just outside of the bathroom she heard her room door open.
"Ooh, what's all this!"
It was Tia's voice. Mei began shampooing her long hair, half listening to her friend and half listening to the beat of the water against the tiles.
"Mei, you've got a lot of stuff on your bed!" Tia's voice rang out again. "And a little note too!"
Mei's eyes widened and she almost fell out of the shower. Wrapping a towel around her body she crashed out of the bathroom, shampoo still in her hair. On her bed was all the shopping bags she'd left.
Tia looked from them and back to her. "So you had an alright shopping day really." She remarked.
"Uh," Mei replied breathlessly. "Yeah…yeah. I must have forgot. You said there was a note?"
Tia handed Mei a small envelope. Mei ripped it open to reveal a little white card inside- upon it was writing:
Just returning your stuff to you.
I briefly considered keeping one of the bags so I could have an excuse to see you again.
In fact, I may be holding a particularly lovely necklace you purchased.
Sorry, old habits die hard; I am a Pirate after all.
Meet me tomorrow outside the hotel and I'll gladly return it to you.
S
Mei almost fainted with excitement.
"Who is it from?" Tia asked, looking slightly alarmed as Mei nearly swooned.
"Jus…" Mei paused and tried to regain control of her face. "Just a shop manager saying I left all my shopping bags in one of the changing rooms."
"Wow," Tia replied, looking sceptical once again. "These must be some pretty nice clothes; you look positively thrilled to have them back."
"They're… they're great," Mei agreed. A grin leapt back onto her face. "Totally great."
