Magpie – the mean comment wasn't aimed at you, I just noticed an increased number of views and feared someone may get a bit flame happy '

I like confidant Much, I always thought he was so, well, Much-like because he had Robin to rely on and that without Robin he'd be quite different. Plus in the modern world, no one's going to kill you for speaking your mind! Lol

Sorry about the slight delay, I was met with some writers block, I had the chapter planned out, it was just instigating it which proved to be difficult

Chapter eight: The Rugby match

The first week in to October, the weather was getting colder, shorts and tee-shirts were definitely things of the past, the leaves were changing, but not in that picturesque autumn foliage seen on postcards. Instead it was in that wet and generally rather miserable English autumn way. The rugby pitch in the park was saturated and squelched under the feet of the two teams which had gathered there. A very tall, bearded man holding a clipboard pointed to seven boys on the pitch and sent them to a nearby bench. Robin cursed and made his way there with the other six.

"Bad luck, Rob. But you know John's only looking out for the team." Allan teased as he jogged about to warm up. He unzipped the college team hoodie he'd been wearing and tossed it to the pitch side, where it joined the other jumpers of team players.

"Hey! Good luck Allan!" Roy shouted from the sidelines as the two teams prepared to play. Will and Djaq were standing further back, Eve and Marian had been standing with them but had started to make their way towards the bench to talk to Robin. When they were nearly there the large bearded coach, John, noticed and decided it wouldn't do.

"You girls leave my team alone, okay? Watch from the side, not the bench!" Quickly Marian and Eve changed their direction and went to stand with Roy instead. "There's fine, just stay there." John smiled; he wasn't that against people talking to the team on the bench, it's just that he liked to see how afraid people were of him, simply because of how he looked. Marian and Eve were giggling over their recent chewing out, and Roy was finding it hard not to join them.

There was suddenly a piercing whistle. A meat head boy from the rivalling team started the game off with one solid kick. Roy, Eve and Marian had no idea what the rules of Rugby were, so the rest was more or less a blue of bare legs and broken teeth.

As the forty minute half came to an end there were sounds of screams and laughing hanging in the air from the nearby free-use playing field. The sound was definitely distracting, and John couldn't stand for his team being distracting during their tactics meeting.

"Huntington!" he barked loudly, signalling for Robin to make his way to where the playing team members were gathering. Grinning stupidly, thinking it meant he was about to be put on, Robin ran over as quickly as he could. "Can you go find out what's going, see if you can't get them to shut up." Feeling slightly rejected Robin trudged across the muddy field, across the small concrete path and over to the gate in the hedge fence which separated the park areas. He leaned against the gate and watched what was causing the noise.

It was Guy and the group of students which he normally hung out with. They were playing some strange, very violent, ball game.

At first Robin couldn't discern if they were in teams or not, but after a while he noticed it; the subtle marker which set some of them apart. It was a blue length of fabric with a metal plate attached to it, the plates had different patterns on them, some had squiqly lines, some had music notes and others had leaves. The students seemed pretty evenly split between those wearing the straps and those not, so Robin guessed it were some form of team sport.

There was one ball at play, it was a cheap rubber X-Men ball, most likely picked up from the local Asda. There were two goals at either end of the playing field; they were made of piles of bags and sweaters. He watched as one band wearing girl grabbed on to a boy who had the ball. She jumped on him with all her weight and managed to get him to the ground. More players were soon upon them, trying to wrestle the ball off of each other, none of them seemed to care how muddy they were all getting. Someone with a band tied around their head managed to get the ball; they threw it to Guy, who was staying out of the dog pile. Once Guy had the ball he started running to the other end of the field.

"Crap, they got it to Guy!" Robin heard a bunch of the non-banded players curse as they tried to catch the other boy before he got to the goal, no such luck. A cheer went out from the banded team and the ball was chucked to a boy without a band. The teams divided and went to stand in front of their individual goals. Robin scanned the groups for Much, finding him on the non-banded side. Much's jeans were covered in mud and so was his back. His hair was different, it was almost shoulder length. The non-banded team suddenly started screaming as they charged forward, the boy with the ball lagged behind. The banded team didn't seem very fazed by the tactic, and it wasn't long before Guy and another second year, Finn, were fast on their way to the boy with the ball. He chucked it high and hoped someone on his team would catch it, they did. It was Amanda. She pulled the ball in to her and ran for it. She didn't get far before a brown haired boy grabbed her from behind, wrapping his arms around her whilst someone else from his team tried to get Amanda to release her death grip on the ball. She wriggled against her captors arms, but nothing seemed to help. She decided to bite him. With a shout of 'you psycho' he let her go. She went to pass the ball to Michael, but it was intercepted by a banded girl, who then went to throw it to Guy.

Much jumped up and grabbed the ball. Robin was surprised that his friend could catch it; he'd never shown a great deal of sporting ability before. Much looked just as surprised at his catch, but as he looked up and saw both Guy and Finn running towards him he soon regretted catching the ball.

"Shit!" he shouted as he started running, he knew he couldn't outrun them, but thought it worth the go. In a matter of seconds the two bigger boys had caught up with him, without a second thought they picked him up, Much struggled to get free as the two carried him towards the goal. Much kicked up and managed to catch Guy slightly, weakening his grip. Not missing a beat he broke free and started running, it only lasted a split second though, as Guy regained himself and grabbed Much by the shoulders and tackled him to the ground past the goal. The ball hit the ground in Much's arms and there was another loud cheer from the banded team.

"You alright, Much?" Guy asked as he helped the younger boy to his feet. Much was entirely covered in mud now, and most of the group couldn't help but laugh. "You put up a good fight, next time we play; you're on my team okay?" Much nodded slowly as he tried to wipe mud off of his face, but his hands and sleeves were so covered that it didn't really help.

Deciding now was probably his best chance; Robin climbed over the fence and walked towards the group.

"Excuse me guys." Robin shouted to get the groups attention. "You may know that there's a college rugby match going on in the next field over, John, the coach, he sent me over here to ask you guys to keep it down a bit." Robin was met with a series of boos and hisses. "Hey I don't care, it's coach who wants you to stop. Don't shoot the messenger." Robin tried to defend himself.

"Look, just tell your damn coach that this is free use park land. We have as much a right to be here, making as much damn noise as we want, as he does. M'kay?" Guy grinned sardonically and he pushed Robin to the ground. "Now get back to your homo-erotic subtext." Robin stood up and tried his best to walk proudly away, with his head held high. It wasn't n easy task considering that his arse was covered in mud. Much glared at Guy, but knew that he was the one who watched his best friend walk away humiliated, knowing he could've done something to stop it.

Robin made his way towards John, who was currently shouting at Carter, who was team captain. John turned and scowled at Robin, he could still here screaming from the field over.

"What happened Huntingdon?" Robin flinched at John's tone.

"They politely declined, stating that they have as much right to be here as we do." Robin, tried to keep his back to everyone else, but Allan had been having a drink from the bottle in his bag.

"What the hell happened to you?" Allan joked as he ran up to his friend. Robin tried to ignore it, but the loud laughing attracted some of the other team members to look at where Allan was pointing.

"Take the bench Huntingdon." John sighed and turned back to his team. Robin trudged, feeling defeated, back to the bench. Marian was at his side instantly. She wrapped her arms around his neck from behind and kissed the top of his head.

"Don't feel bad. What happened over there?" She moved to sit next to him on the bench, she saw John looking at her, yet he didn't shout for her to go away. The others made their way over to see if Robin was okay.

"It was Guy and his freaken minions, playing some stupid game. Much is over there as well, he seems like he's having fun." Robin was seething with anger. Eve's eyes lit up at the mention of Much. She started to back up and then turned around to head over to the other playing field.

"I'm just going to go say hi." She muttered. Djaq shook her head and tried not to laugh.

"I wonder if she likes him." Will put on a stupid voice and pulled a 'thinking' pose. "You okay, Robin?" Robin sighed angrily, but nodded nonetheless. "Okay, in that case, I think I'm going to go say hi to Much, I haven't seen him in a while."

"Fine, see you later." Robin was obviously pissed off, but Will decided to ignore him and go say hi. Djaq walked along with him, holding his hand and swinging it slightly.

"See ya Robin, Marian." Rob said quickly as he turned and jogged after the others.

"I'm still here." She reminded Robin. Kissing his cheek and running her hand through his hair. He smiled slightly and turned, pulling her in to a kiss.

"You're all that I need." Robin smiled, Marian could feel the curve of his smile against her mouth, and she smiled too.

"Right back at ya." Marian moved away to sit next to 'robin and hold his hand. "You want to get something to eat in town tonight?" Robin nodded and kissed Marian on the cheek. "How about that Chinese down by the station? It's quite cheep but it's all you can eat." Robin nodded again.

"As long as you're there I'm fine."

"Huntington" There was a shout across the field. "Get your arse in the game, Dale, you're on the bench." Robin laughed slightly, partly happy and quite a bit frustrated at the timing. He pulled off the sweater he was wearing and dumped it on the bench next to Marian, who smirked at Robin as he ran in to the field. Allan slowly trudged towards Marian; he had a fairly painful looking series of grazes on his legs from his knees below.

"Where's everyone else gone?" Allan looked around, but couldn't spot any of the group who'd come with him and Robin.

"They went over to the multi-purpose field. Much is over there playing some game." Marian barely looked at Allan as she spoke, preferring to look past him and watch Robin in his shorts.

"Okay, Come get us when the games over?" Marian nodded without really taking it in. Allan jogged over to the gate to the other field. He climbed over the gate with ease and watched for a minute. It didn't take long for Roy to spot him, and get tackled to the floor for getting distracted. Slowly getting up Roy limped towards Allan.

"You want to play? It's fantastic fun." Roy was beaming, despite the fact that he was limping and had the start of a massive bruise forming on his right arm.

"What is it?" Allan looked at the nonsensical series of tackles, illegal seeming moves and passes in front of him.

"It's maul ball." Allan raised an eyebrow at the games name before turning back to the carnage and understanding why it was named thusly.

"You know, I think I'll pass." Allan paused for a second to scan for the others. He could find Will and Djaq amongst the players, but had no sign of Eve. "Can you tell Will and Djaq that if they want to come to the pub with the team then we should start getting ready, the games nearly over and we're way in the lead." Roy shrugged and was about to head back in to the fray when Allan stopped him, "Oh, and where's Eve?" Roy scanned the line of bags and spectators, and then pointed towards a fairly large ash tree. Roy then proceeded back in to the game. Allan walked over to the small group of student gathered by the ash tree which Roy had pointed to. Eve was sitting on the ground, dabbing a bloody graze on a familiar blonde haired boy; there was a male student cleaning a large, bigger then Allan's, wound down Much's leg. The boy from the first day was leaning over Much and asking him questions, something along the line of 'are you dizzy/how many fingers/can you feel pain and are you tired?'

"No obvious signs of concussion. If you start to feel tired, or dizzy to tell me straight away and we'll get you to the walk-in." Michael laughed slightly as he looked down at his friend one last time before getting back in to the game.

"Hey Eve." Allan gave a slight wave; Eve looked up at him and smiled. "You coming to the pub with the team?" She looked at Much, who was sitting up and laughing at himself with the other students.

"Sure." For a second Allan saw a hint of sorrow in her eyes as she looked at Much. "Just let me get my stuff." She stood up, wiped leaves and dirt of her butt and stepped over a few pairs of legs to get to her jacket. Pulling it on she smiled at Much and waved. Much gave a small wave and a lopsided smile in return. Will and Djaq appeared from the field, Will's knees were covered in mud, but Djaq was spotless, both were out of breath and grinning from ear to ear.

"I kicked you arse, just admit it!" Djaq laughed as she playfully shoved Will.

"You had help!" Will defended. "We going?" He turned to Allan.

"Yeah, when Roy gets here." Allan watched Roy in the game, but he showed no sign of leaving.

"Roy said that he'd like to stay and play. He's see you on the bus tonight." Djaq looked at Allan, seeing that he still couldn't really stand being near her. She knew she should feel bad about what she'd done, but Allan seemed to have no remorse for the way he acted a lot of the time. Allan nodded a few times slowly, then, without saying a word, he headed back to the rugby game. Will turned to Djaq and Eve and shrugged before following after Allan.

About ten minutes later the large grey clouds which had been threatening rain all afternoon finally came through. It started as a small warning drizzle before escalating in to a heavy torrent. When the warning started to fall, the group of maul ball players decided to pack it in. They all grabbed their individual bags and coats, before someone asked that all important question.

"So who won?" Suddenly there was a loud celebration from everyone wearing a band.

"All of you losers owe us all a hot drink from the park cafe." Guy announced to the group as they made their way to the small little shack of a cafe. "Much doesn't have to pay before you try to get money from him. I think he's suffered enough." Guy grinned widely and tried not to laugh at the sight of Much limping with Amanda helping him along. "Let me help." He sighed and took over for Amanda. Roy was walking next to Much, but when Guy appeared he lagged behind, Guy noticed but decided to let it go, though he really didn't want to.

The one lone barista at the cafe turned them away, claiming that there were too many of them. She did point out that they could sit in the gazebo. She said she could serve them, but not let them sit inside. Guy was about to bite her head off when Finn stepped in and thanked her for the idea. He then banished Guy to the gazebo, until later. Guy assisted Much up the stairs at the gazebo before taking one of the only two benches in the gazebo. Much leaned against one of the wooden pillars and slowly slumped down to the ground.

"You're not tired or dizzy are you?" Guy suspiciously observed the younger boy. Much shook his head. It wasn't long before other members of the banded team appeared at the gazebo. Roy took a seat on the ground next to Much.

"So... you know what. I'm just going to ask. Why the hell don't you hang out with us?" Much was taken aback by the question and fell silent for a few moments. When he opened his mouth to answer a cardboard cup of hot chocolate was passed to him by Finn, Roy had declined the offer of a free drink. Finn was going to stay and talk too Much, but it didn't take a genius to notice that he had interrupted a serious conversation, so he quickly went and found someone else to hangout with.

"It's not like he noticed." Much popped the plastic cap of his cup and blew on the steaming liquid before risking a tongue burn and taking a sip. The two of them sat in silence.

End of chapter

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