Part Nineteen

Michael barely had time to settle back into his room before Judy had him whisked into a training routine to catch up on what he had missed. His days were long, spent calibrating his techniques with Trygle's upgrades; and his nights even longer, lying awake in his lonely bed wondering what he had done to make Robert want to hurt him so badly.

Robert never made any attempt to contact him over the following weeks, and Michael was too afraid to make the first move himself. What would one say to royalty in a situation like that?

Physically, Michael made a full recovery, claiming back his title as the PPB's finest athlete as if he had never left. Memories of his time spent in Europe were still a mixture of happiness and bitter disappointment, but immersing himself in his sport usually kept his emotions in check.

But his personal life was evidence that Robert had broken him - he had been notably celibate since his return home. The girls who threw themselves at his fame and fortune were no longer of any interest to him. Robert had loved him for who he was... or so he thought. And he couldn't go back to the empty life of pleasure he'd once enjoyed, for the lack of not knowing anything else.

The lure of Oliver's unforgettable phone number was there every time he opened his bedside drawer, but contact with any of the Majestics would have upset him.

He was certain the French boy would be a good lay - no, a fantastic lay - but he couldn't bring himself to make the call. He would be thinking of Robert the entire time, and it wouldn't have been fair to Oliver, nor to Robert... nor to himself.

There were hushed whispers from the students at the PPB's training facility as the pair of boys were hurried through to the directors' suite. The taller of the two kept his head high, not acknowledging any of the attention, whilst the other winked at the girls who swooned at his Latin charms as he passed.

Why were two of the Majestics making a visit to the home of the All Starz? By the end of the day, there would be so many rumours going around it would be difficult to tell what was truth and what was not.

"Robert? Enrique? What a surprise!" Judy greeted the taller boy with a formal handshake. "What brings you here?"
Robert took a breath, but he could not summon the words. His blonde friend slapped him on the shoulder and answered for him.
"We're here to see how Michael's doing."
Judy nodded, pleased with the idea. "He's in the middle of practise right now, but you're welcome to watch."

She lead the pair past several security devices, down many corridors, and finally to a booth which overlooked the training room. Robert scoured the group of people below, catching sight of Emily's familiar orange hair first, and then... beautiful burgundy.

Michael was parading around the dish with his hands in the air and a huge grin on his face - obviously the winner of the match.
"That wasn't fair, Michael!" The small girl yelled, thrusting her hand out and pointing at the smug victor.
"So bite me, Squirt."
"Uh!" She let out an offended gasp. "Judy!"

"Michael!" Judy cautioned him from her microphone, making Robert madly search for something to hide behind in case he looked up.
Too caught up in his own ego, the All Starz' captain kept his back to his audience and gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "Yeah, yeah... whatever."

Switching the amplifying system off for a moment, Judy turned around to address her visitors once more. "As you can see, he's made a full recovery. Since the match is over, did you want to go down and talk to him?"

"Sure!"
Robert elbowed Enrique in the ribs in an attempt to void his enthusiastic answer. "No."

A clean cut. No regrets. If he were to talk to the boy again... perhaps even get so close he could touch him again, every feeling he'd tried so hard to suppress would come rushing back. He'd known love, and it had been a nice experience. But the time for love was over, and life proceeded as usual for the knight.

The All Star was back to his old self, and Robert didn't want to take that away from him. It was the moment, the castle, something... that had made the two so perfect for each other. And now it was gone. Michael had his true love back - his sport.

"Judy?" Robert asked as he and Enrique were shown out. "Would you give these to Michael for me?"
Reaching into his pocket, he placed several broken attack ring pieces in the woman's outstretched hand. She looked at them with a frown of confusion, but agreed to pass them on.

Half an hour break, then back to more training. Michael sighed as he made his way down the hallway, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. He could hear the footsteps of someone behind him, getting faster to catch up to him, but chose to keep walking.

A moment later, Eddy had slung his arm around the shorter boy's shoulders.
"Mikey, you up for lunch? They've got that new burger Steve's been talking about all week."
"Yeah, I guess so." He tried to sound enthusiastic, but found himself wishing for some of Oliver's cooking instead.

A pair of students passed them, gossiping excitedly.
"Did you hear about the Majestics?"
"I know! I wonder what's going on?!"

"What about the Majestics?" Michael arm lashed out, grabbing the closest student by the shoulder, and pushing him against the wall as he demanded an answer.
The terrified boy could barely stutter as he explained that he had heard Robert and Enrique had been seen on the premises earlier.
"When? Are they still here?!"

"Whoa... calm down." Eddy pulled his captain away from the boy. "If they want to challenge us, we'll have no problem beating them."
"I- I don't know if they're still here. I don't even know if they were here - it's just a rumour."
Michael turned to Eddy. "Where's Judy?"
The basketball player shrugged. "Come on, Steve's waiting for us."
"Look, I'm going to have to cancel lunch - go ahead without me."

"You're cancelling the greatest burger ever for some Eurotrash?! What's got into you, Michael? You used to be cool."
His captain frowned. "They're not trash."
And before Eddy could retaliate, Michael had bolted back down the hallway to where he had last seen his coach.

He didn't care that Eddy would probably relay the entire event to Steven over what would have once been a great lunch. All that mattered was finding out what Robert was up to.

"Yes, he was here. And no, he made it quite clear that he didn't want to talk to you..." Judy simply answered her student's barrage of disjointed questions without even looking up from her paperwork. "...I don't know where he is staying, but Enrique was very keen to see your comeback game tomorrow, so I should imagine they will be in the country for at least another day. Is this going anywhere, Michael? I'm very busy."
"No, I guess it's not..." The disheartened boy turned to leave. Why wouldn't they want to talk to him?

"Oh, but Robert did ask me to give you something. It was very strange." She paused to think for a moment, as if she had misplaced the bizarre gift, before reaching into her desk's top drawer and holding out the attack ring pieces to Michael.

He stared at them in awe, understanding their meaning right away - Robert had avenged his loss to the Demolition Boys.

"Hey, Robert! Wake up!"
The knight heard Enrique yelling from their luxury hotel suite's doorway, but rolled over and pulled his blankets tighter around himself. "Go away."

Why he had let his friend talk him into coming to America still puzzled him. He knew seeing Michael again would only upset him, and yet he had not only caught a flight to the boy's home country, but had visited the All Starz' research facility. He'd never imagined himself a masochist before, but even as he lay there, he was thinking about returning to the centre and stealing glimpses from the booth above the training room of what he could not have... of what he once had, and lost.

"I've got something you might want to take a look at." Enrique almost sang the temptation. Before Robert could answer, he'd jumped onto his captain's bed, waving two tickets in front of his face. "You up for a baseball game this afternoon?"

By his level of excitement, Robert knew it had to be one of Michael's games. His aching heart urged him to say no, but he was reminded of the promise he had made to the boy what seemed like forever ago. He promised he would watch him play.

The familiar atmosphere felt good, but Michael's mind was back in Europe. The noise of the crowd was nowhere near as supportive as Oliver's one-man cheer squad. And the other team... he couldn't even remember the captain's name, when it had been so easy to call out to Enrique during their little game.

"Michael?"
His eyes were watching the dirt at his feet blur into nothing, and the more he stared, the more it confused him... he didn't want to be there. He wanted to be with Robert. And if that meant giving up his career, he didn't care. There were more important things in life than sport.

In his clenched fist he held a broken piece of Tala's Wolborg - a gift from Robert. Judy had given it to him earlier, and Michael had not known whether he was ecstatic that his knight in shining armour would do something like that for him, or whether he was furious that Robert didn't deliver the proof to him personally.

"Michael, you're up."

The boy jumped at being brought back into the present. Pocketing the attack ring piece, he rose to his feet, amidst the seemingly silent cheers of his fans.

It was his come-back game - he was the centre of attention. It was everything he had ever wanted. And now that he had it, it seemed so petty, so insignificant.

Surveying the crowd, he gave them a forced smile and wave. Subconsciously he was looking for Enrique, but hoping that he wouldn't find him.

Blonde... no.
Blonde... no.
Blonde... yes!

And purple beside him.

The match didn't matter any more. Robert was there!

He bolted across the field, his eyes never leaving Robert's. The knight hurried out of his seat to meet him half way. And in front of shocked onlookers, Michael threw his arms around Robert's neck and kissed him with all the passion he could muster from the long weeks without him. The world stopped as their lips met. Neither cared as whispers became a loud roar throughout entire audience.

"I thought I'd never see you again." Michael slurred, not wanting to end the kiss.
"I promised I would watch you play."
"I couldn't possibly play now." Came the reply as Robert tightened his embrace.
Their bodies ground together, hungry for each other.
"Michael... I was a fool to let you go. I- I love you so much."

The American whimpered under the duel seduction of Robert's body hard against his and the words he never thought he would ever hear from anyone. "I love you, too."

"Hey, Robert! You're ruining the game!" Enrique shouted from the stand.
His captain looked around, Michael's arms still tight around his neck. "So bite me, Squirt."