Chapter 13: Resting
When Tytus and Cass arrived at the plaza they were met with the others. At this moment their teammates gave them a glace as Nova waved them down. Luke was hunched over, rubbing his shoulder, seemingly in pain as were the rest of their teammates.
"I take it Turf Wars went well." Cass said, earning the tired gazes of half of the squad. "Or maybe not…"
"Everyone's a bit sore from matches…" Nova said apologetically. "It's was a few rough matches but hey," She pulled out her card revealing she was now on the cusp of being Level 7. "We should celebrate the work we've put in tomorrow since we're almost there. We've worked for this." Everyone nodded, even Deborah, whose face barely could contort to disagree, let alone speak.
Tytus spoke up, "What about us? We didn't do too much today."
"You guys probably could work together and bring up your level." She pointed at the two boys. We'll be doing some shopping."
"Well…" Cass scratched at his head nervously. "I was hoping we'd be able to properly hang out for a day." Before anyone could say anything he continued. "If we're gonna work together we might as well get to know one another, I think it'd benefit us all to stick since only 4 people can play out of our 6 teammates. We'd be able to hang around more often."
"He raises a good point." Tytus agreed much to some of the team's confusion. He was being rather agreeable, something they hadn't seen from the hot-head outside of buttering up his female entourage. "Besides I say you all earned it."
"Fine with me, but for now I'll catch you all later." Luke got up only for a hand to clamp onto his shoulder.
"Before you go," Nova asked, "I have a proposition for you all."
Luke turned his head. "And that would be?"
"Morning jog. Crack of dawn. Give me your apartment addresses and room numbers and I'll come and get you."
With that, the team headed for home. Brody was seen off to the train back home, he told the others that he'd set his clock so he would be able to meet with Nova at the train and departed. With the other five going to their apartments, they all walked with each other.
The luminated, busy streets had always kept the walk home comfortable, there was a warmth of community to night time strides and although it was different from the cozy suburbs that Luke was used to seeing. He had to admit there was something worthwhile into coming into the sprawling metropolis proper.
"So, the plan is to wake up as early as possible to start our morning exercise, then we'll spare."
This caused Luke to stutter out, "O-oh…I don't think I could make it, I have something to do in the morning." Nova looked at her friend wondering whatever he could he need to do in the early morning. Inklings we're known for getting up early anyways unless they were active. Even then it takes a lot of noise and moving to wake an inkling at 9, let alone 7 in the morning.
Not wanting to pry into his affairs she nodded in understanding. "We'll meet up in the plaza so that we can find each other. Again, meet up at 7 in the plaza." He nodded as he made a mental note. He would sneak out at 6 so he'd at least have some time before he spent time with his team.
Once they had seen Tytus and Deborah back to their residence, They made the walk to Cass' building.
"Well, well I wasn't expecting to run into you again until after the match started." The trio looked around until Cass found the source of the voice.
He tapped his teammates shoulders and pointed a finger to a familiar face. It was that pale red-eyed inkling from the night before!
Nova's eye widened in shock and she caught a few awkward glances from passersby as she shouted, "It's you!" impulsively. Her savior from the night before tugged a hoodie shot her a scornful glance which caused her to cover her mouth when she realized her error.
"Maybe, helping you out was a mistake…" He grumbled in a barely audible voice.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?"
"Never mind that." He smirked haughtily. "The big match is in 3 days, well, big for you at least," Everything about him sent Luke on edge. His demeanor was cocky, but in a way that he was certain that he could quite easily back it up on the turf. He was barely giving them glances, which he could only determine was because he didn't consider them as real threats or anyone with much respect. Whenever he did eye them it was more like he was considering on who'd be the easiest target out of the 3 of them.
"So…" Azriel looked at the tallest squid of the 3. "I get how you guys ended up challenging our team…but, I am wondering why you'd do it." He chuckled somewhat nervously. "After all, an up and coming, all-star turf war team against a team of newbies seems a bit unfair."
His face contorted back into a scowl, to the point Luke had to think it was his default expression. "There's no reason I have to justify what we or our team leader does. Especially to the likes of you." Luke withered as the pale skinned boy shifted his eyes to him, peppering the last word with intense spite.
Luke was taken aback by the hatred he heard in Azriel's voice. He had no idea why he suddenly showed such disdain towards them- no, not even his team. Him.
It was an awkward silence to be sure, it was only broken when Cass realized he was approaching his street. He left with a very quick goodbye and diverged from the rest of them, leaving the two with Azriel. He didn't seem to be too eager to try and fight the flow of traffic of night time strollers to get away from them, but his presence constantly radiated an aura of "Do not touch me." the entire distance between them and Luke's apartment. As Luke went into the building he glanced over to the streets as Nova waved enthusiastically.
He went in and up through the elevator. As he walked to his room he noticed Aeolia walking through the hallway towards the elevator. He passed by her as she walked briskly towards the lift. As he stood in front of his door he could feel her eyes burning into his, figurative, skull.
It didn't take long for him to unlock the door, the chime of the elevator closing following soon after. As he moved to his room, he noticed it was extremely quiet. Approaching his door, he had noticed a note attached to it. He approached and gently took it off to read its contents:
Yo, I stepped out to hang out with some friends of mine for two days. There's a melon, about 5-9 packs of canned sardines and some clam crackers in the kitchen if your hungry, so help yourself. I'll be back soon. -Felicia.
He let out a sigh. He'd eat some crackers then go to bed. As he stumbled wearily to the kitchen, he felt a mild throbbing in his head. He shrugged it off, he at least wanted to get to his bed before he decided to relax.
Then his vision went black.
Sorry about the wait. Gonna keep this brief though that I'll be trying to put these out. Please do let me know how you feel about this.
