The Trouble with Love Potions
Chapter 9: Breaking Point
Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.
In terms of timeline, the earlier events of this chapter happen at the same time as all that stuff that was going on in the last chapter- when it all converges it should hopefully be pretty clear.
It was quite late when Mei, Micro-ice and Tia met the next day, they'd managed to sleep in- clearly the events of the past few days had taken a greater toll on them than they had initially realised.
But even when they did all meet, in Tia and Mei's room, they were slightly at a loss as to what they should do- Tia had already tried calling Rocket about 15 times, but he never picked up his holo-phone.
"I feel like we should be doing something," Mei said, tapping her fingers irritably on her leg.
"What can we do?" Tia said, shrugging sadly. "Dame Simbai is working on it- badgering her isn't going to help anything- she'll tell us when she knows anything."
"I think we should go 'check' on Yuki and Mark," Micro-ice suggested, his face a picture of innocence.
"He has a point," said Mei.
"I do?" Micro-ice asked, flummoxed- he had expected to be shut down again.
"Well, not about them specifically, I mean everyone. Who knows what trouble they could be getting themselves into on their own."
Tia nodded. "That's true- has anyone seen Thran recently? He seems to have disappeared."
The other two shook their heads.
"Then it's settled," Mei said. "Let's try to find him first."
Finding him turned out to be a lot more troublesome that it had originally sounded- they begun with the assumption that he was in Aarch Academy but they'd searched almost everywhere and he was no-where to be found. He certainly wasn't in his and Ahito's room- but with the way it looked currently who could blame him? It didn't help that they still had no idea who the love potion had made him fall for; that at least would have given them some clue as to where to start.
Just as they were about to give up, they stumbled across him in a room that usually went unused, surrounded by various strange looking contraptions, small components- the stench of oil was overwhelming, causing them to cough.
Although that should have alerted him to their presence, he didn't seem to notice, he didn't look up from the device he was working from.
"Ugh, how can you stand it in here?" Micro-ice said, waving his hand around despite there being little chance of him wafting the smell away.
"I have to work," Thran said, flatly, still not looking at them.
"How long have you been in here?" Mei asked, a look of horror on her face.
"A while," he said, flatly.
"When was the last time you slept?" Tia asked, noting how sunken and bloodshot his eyes looked.
"More to the point, when was the last time you showered?" Micro-ice said, jokily.
"I don't have time," Thran replied, simply.
"Why not? What are you working on that's this important?" Mei asked, not being able to imagine how someone could stand being as dirty and dishevelled as he looked right now- quite frankly, he looked practically dead; he could have fit into the cast of a zombie film without anyone knowing the difference.
"I need to prove myself; I need to prove I'm worthy."
"Prove yourself to who?" Micro-ice asked. "Listen, Thran, I'm not sure your valentine will be quite as impressed by this sort of stuff as you are."
Thran had nothing to say to that- he just carried on with his work.
The three of them looked at each other, slightly at a loss for what to say.
"Come on, Thran," Tia said, finally. "Let's go get something to eat."
It took all three of them to drag him away from his work but once they had made it far away from the room he pretty much stopped resisting. They went to the cafeteria and he managed to eat the whole meal- but that was all they could get from him. He ate in silence, wolfing down his food, and they were unable to persuade him to shower or go take a nap before he rushed back to his mechanical projects.
Upon discussing it, they decided that they'd go check on him again in a while- at least they knew he probably wasn't going anywhere- which was more than they could probably say for some of the others.
They found Ahito back in his room; that had detained them for a while; he kept insisting upon giving various tokens of his affections to Mei and protested every time they tried to leave.
In the end, they only managed to slip away because he fell asleep again.
Apart from him, the others seemed to be no-where to be found: the cafeteria, the hallways, the common room- all were empty. It wasn't an encouraging sign.
"Let's go check Yuki's room again," Micro-ice suggested.
Mei rolled her eyes.
"Alright," Tia said, sighing. "I guess it couldn't hurt."
They entered the room expecting to find no-one; instead they found chaos. Yuki was the midst of slapping D'jok hard across the face. Mark had got up on the bed, a paper weight in his hand, looking like he was about to jump down and hit D'jok over the head with it. Meanwhile, Rocket was grabbing onto Mark's ankle in some pull him down.
"What is going on here?" Mei asked, shaking her head, although the comment was lost the midst of all the sound.
"At least we know where they are?" Micro-ice said, half-heartedly
"Everybody stop what you are doing and look at me!" Tia shouted, sounding much like a school teacher- the shock of it being enough that they actually did do as they were told. "Now separate out and let go of each other."
Slowly, and looking distrustfully at each other, they did- Yuki and Mark slinking into a corner together, whilst Rocket tried to sit as close to D'jok as possible- all the while D'jok was trying to get as far away from him as possible. Eventually though, they settled.
"Good," Tia said, somewhat surprised and yet relieved that they had actually listened to her.
"So anyone want to tell us what's going on here?" Mei asked, hands on hips.
This prompted them to all start talking- or more to the point- shouting at once.
"That's enough!" Mei yelled. "If you want to talk, then raise your hand and I will pick you."
Three hands (Rocket was not feeling particularly communicative seeing as Tia was in the room) shot in the air but before Mei had a chance to ask anyone to speak, Tia's holo-phone started ringing.
"Good news," Dame Simbai's voice on the other end said. "I think we may have found a cure."
That's it for this chapter; I can't believe I actually got this one out so fast but I'm on a bit of a writing kick at the moment. Also, does anyone want to guess who Thran has fallen for? Next chapter should be soon; please review!