Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football.

Lean on me

"Stop wandering around, you're making me dizzy," Mei complained, as she read through the same sentence for the third time and failed to understand a word since her eyes kept drifting towards her roommate.

"I can't!" Tia said, as she busied her hands with the zipper of her windbreaker, "There hasn't been any news from him! The only thing I know is Aarch came into Rocket's room in the middle of the night, told him to stay calm and then Simbai said the three of them were going off to that hospital! Clearly, there's something seriously wrong!"

"I know," Mei sighed, "You told me already, but you stressing this much does no good for them, does it? You have to be calm; if it is something bad, you'll have to comfort Rocket."

"I know, I know," Tia threw herself on her bed, "It's just... I expect the worst and not knowing doesn't help... I hope everyone's fine."

"That's it," Mei stood up and walked over to Tia's wardrobe, taking out her pyjamas she turned back, "You need to rest. If you go on like this, you'll be the one in need of comfort tomorrow." She threw the pyjamas at her and put her hands on her hips in a bossy manner. "Sleep. Now."

"It's easy for you to say," Tia growled as she took off her clothes.

The next day, Tia went shyly into Aarch's room and asked why Rocket wasn't back yet. The coach gazed tiredly at the petite midfielder for a good minute before a small, sad smile crept to his face and he told her Rocket was back in his family house and he would probably want to see no one other than her right now. Tia's eyes sank, something heavy sat on her heart as she realized this meant that there was a serious problem after all. Aarch said, she was free from training that day and he expected her to bring back the team captain in as much of a good condition as it's possible.

Norato opened the door to the girl he had grown accustomed to seeing. The same small, sad smile Tia had seen only half an hour ago on her coach's face crept across the florist's features and he gave her a brief hug which helped assure Tia that she was not seen as an intruder and ushered one of her worries away.

"Keira is sleeping but I'm sure Rocket hasn't blinked an eye," Norato said as he prepared two cups of hot chocolate, which reminded Tia of the time Rocket had given her one after saving her from the snow storm. "He'll tell you what's going on."

"Thank you," Tia said. The man smiled encouragingly as she took the cups and headed upstairs.

She knocked silently on the door. She heard a shuffle inside and Rocket opened it, standing dumbstruck for a moment.

"You didn't think I'd leave this to be, did you?" she asked raising the cups, "You must've known I'd chase you down."

He blinked as the small, sad smile –which Tia then decided was a trademark to this family's men- passed across his face and he took one of the cups from her as he allowed her inside. She took a look around as she walked in; this was the first time she went into Rocket's room.

It was rather neat, probably because he didn't live there much –Tia had seen his "secret" place, thank you. On the wall was a poster of Aarch, Norato and some ancient looking video tapes were scattered around his desk, one look confirmed that they were of plays and short films Keira had once taken part in. There was the photo of the Snow Kids on his nightstand, taken while they were heading to Genesis, Tia could tell. But what surprised her was the wooden cradle by the window.

"It was for my brother," Rocket said, when he noticed her gazing at the wooden bed.

"Was?" Tia turned around.

"Miscarriage."

Tia sat on his bed slowly, her eyes fixed on the cradle. Rocket sat next to her:

"I was going to paint it in blue and white," he said, "And there was this prism I loved to play with when I was small so... the plan was to hang it up here..."

Tia watched as the sunlight passed through the banisters of the cradle; she could almost see a baby boy playing in it, giggling as Rocket showed him the spectrum of colours the prism hung on his bed created. She looked up at Rocket who was gazing at the cradle, too.

"How's Keira?" Tia asked.

"She... well. I'm not sure. She could have been worse, I suppose."

"Norato seems..." she thought for a moment to the man's eerily calm after the storm air, "Like he's sad for her more than he's sad for himself."

"Yeah, he has seen me grow, hasn't he? This was her last chance to see her child grow."

"Don't say that. They're still not so old, you know..."

"No, Tia. She can't. Not anymore."

"Oh."

Tia didn't know what else she could say. She was certain there were worse things in life, though admittedly she was yet to face any of them. All she knew was Keira was one of the strongest women she knew, and she could make it through this.

She reached out for Rocket's hand and noticed the healing cut across his palm. She looked at the cradle and then up at him. He watched silently as she stroked his wound a few times in thought before raising their hands to leave a long kiss over it. She rounded his torso with her arms and rested her head over his heart.

Keira had amazing men in her life who would help her; she would make it.

Rocket was uncertain for a moment before he threw an arm around her and rested his head over hers.

Shorter than the recent chapters I know, but I didn't want to overdramatize it. Hopefully I didn't. And hopefully I explained what has been going on thorougly enough.