Negative Space
Chapter 11: Keira
Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.
Keira woke to the sound of crying. Sighing, she glanced at the clock - she'd managed to sleep for 12 minutes without interruption. That's a record almost. She pushed herself out of the warmth of her bed and headed over to Rocket's crib.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked through gritted teeth, as she picked him up, feeling guilty almost as soon as she had said it. She checked his nappy first – nothing new there thankfully. She rocked him a little, trying to make a soothing sound, but still he wept.
By process of elimination that probably meant he was hungry. She put him down and went to get the pre-made formula milk, warming it up a little first whilst Rocket continued to cry.
"It'll just be a minute," Keira said, exasperated, though she knew that he couldn't understand.
When it was done she brought it over, putting the bottle up to Rocket's lips as she held him upright – thankful for the blissful silence as he greedily drank it in. She was glad he seemed to be enjoying it anyways; she had planned to breastfeed him (she'd heard many times how much better it was supposed to be) but when it came to it, she found the sensation too painful to continue.
Once the bottle was almost empty, she set it aside and just held Rocket. She could feel his small, contented, breaths against her body and she felt a little better. Settling into position, she turned on the holo-tv, putting the volume on low so that it didn't disturb Rocket too much.
"For those of you that just tuned in, there's talk of a surprise election coming Akillian's way. The ALC have up to a year and a half left on their term but representative from the CPoA state that the ALC have handled the recent crisis on their planet with 'continuing incompetence'. The ALC have struck back by calling this move 'opportunistic.' More on this story as it-"
Keira turned the holo-tv off, cutting off the presenter mid-sentence. There was only so much political speculation she could handle – it was probably just talk anyways. She just sat there in silence for a while before Rocket made a sort of hiccupy sound, spitting up a small mouthful of milk directly onto Keira's shoulder.
She sighed and put him back in the crib, getting him settled into sleep, and trudged over to the bathroom, grabbing a towel from the rack, wetting it slightly under the tap. She pointedly refused to look in the mirror – no point; she knew she must look tired and unkempt.
She took the towel back and flopped back onto the sofa (these days she was usually on the sofa or in bed and her main form of exercise was moving between the two). She pawed at her jumper with the towel. The excess had come off easily enough but there was still a stain that wouldn't seem to go away no matter how much she scrubbed at it.
She wished she could just go take a walk, clear her head, but to do so she'd have to disturb Rocket and put him in the pram. Besides, it was too cold to actually enjoy just wandering around, enjoying nature; most of the plant-life hadn't survived the drop in temperatures) – all you saw if you went out now were other people shivering from the cold.
The door creaked open, letting some cold air in.
"Hi," said Norata. She wasn't sure whether she was imagining it but she thought there was a distinctly sour note in voice.
"How was it?"
He shrugged.
"What were the tests?" she asked, feeling irritated that he was being so reticent to give her any information.
"We had to do a bunch of exercises. You know, stuff we did before…"
"Doesn't sound too bad," she said. She had to admit then when she'd heard there was going to be testing she had imagined all sorts of weird stuff – like taking blood or injecting them with chemicals – she wasn't quite sure how these things worked.
Apparently this was the wrong thing to say. "Oh yes, it was great. I got to see all my teammates doing the things that used to come so easily to me. And in return they got to watch me stumble around, with pitying expressions on their faces, secretly just glad it didn't happen to them."
"I'm sure they didn't think that," Keira said, trying to sound comforting. "It's natural for people to feel concerned about you – it's just because they care."
He continued as though he hadn't heard her and she couldn't help but wonder when her sweet husband, who never even raised his voice, was replaced with this angry stranger. "We were all there that day but I'm the only one that lost anything. He just walked away and didn't even look back!" He kicked at a waste-paper bin, missing it by an inch. He stumbled a little and grabbed onto the doorframe to steady himself.
He turned back to look at her. "Can't even kick a bin properly." His voice was very small.
She looked back at him and they both burst into a strange sudden burst of laughter. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, or maybe it was just the sheer absurdity of it in the midst of all this helplessness, but for that moment it was the funniest thing she'd heard in her life. For that moment, she really believed that they could make it through this…that it would all be alright.
The holo-phone rang suddenly, startling them. Rocket started to whimper. Keira made a grab for the phone, knowing full well Norata was in no mood to answer it despite the fact it would probably be for him anyways.
"Hello?" she said, trying to sound pleasant.
"Is this Keira speaking?" the man on the other end asked. She didn't recognise his voice though it sounded vaguely familiar.
"Yes, it is, who is this?"
"This is Cade Kahn from the Bright Stars Agency – you auditioned for us a while back but we didn't have any available spots. Well, I'm just calling to let you know that a space has opened up and we'd love to have you!"
"Really?" Keira blurted, unable to believe her luck.
"Now we'll want to get you started right away, you can't allow opportunities to slip away from you."
"Well, of course," she said, quickly.
"Excellent, how about we depart for Genesis Stadium in a week?"
When looking at scenes in which Keira's Agent appeared I couldn't find any mention on his name so I just made one up for the sake of this fic; the political parties mentioned are also made up and not meant to directly parallel any specific political organisations in the real world.
This chapter was pretty hard to write because we're leading up to the Norata/Keira split and I didn't want to be too unsympathetic to either of them (because they're dealing with a lot) whilst still making it clear why the break-up happened (if you see what I mean).
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter - please leave a review and let me know what you thought!
