Rating: PG13

Pairing: T/L

Disclaimer: Yeah. My Dell is no longer new, my drivel is just that….trickling drivel….and RFR is cancelled so no one is making any money.

A/N: Oh. Kay. Yeah. Here's another installment. Perhaps when we are all popping Geritol tablets I'll have it finished. I'm not too fearful of the wrath of readers as the fandom appears Ded. But not Trily….no….Trily will live forever. HA!

HAIKU DRIVEL

Chapter Six

Lily quickly took off her headset and stood up, "That's it. One of you tell me what the hell is going on. Now."

Robbie groaned and slowly slipped his headphones down around his neck. "I don't really care anymore. I just wish they'd leave it off the air."

Travis quickly added, still glaring at Ray, "Oh, I was more than willing to, it's Pronto here that seems to like being so open all of the sudden after years of…Not. Doing. Anything."

Lily looked around the table in confusion and sat on her chair with a thump. "Wait, just this morning everyone was fine! I go to the dentist for a few hours, and now everyone is at each other's throats!"

Leaning back in his chair, Robbie corrected her, "Well, technically, it's just Ray and Travis. I'm just an innocent bystander."

Lily glared at him. "Well then, are you gonna enlighten me or are you gonna shut it?" would you either enlighten me or shut it?"

Robbie just raised his eyebrows at her indignantly, "Me? Oh, no! It's their problem. They ought to be the ones!" He leaned forward again and placed his hands flat on the table. "In fact, they NEED to do it. Hell, maybe they can do it in another seventeen syllables!" At his last comment, he directed a very pointed look of irritation at Ray.

Travis chuckled ominously, shaking his head. "Oh, he did do that; except he's still such a coward he couldn't bring himself to be original even then."

Ray started out of his chair. "Oh, I'll show you original, Swami!"

"Ray!" Lily started to step up to stop him from barging into the tech booth. "What the…"

Just then the phone rang, loud and piercing, and all eyes went to the blinking board indicating a caller on the line.

Before flipping the switch, Robbie gave them all a questioning look as if to ask if they could keep their cool. "RFR, you're on the air." Slowly, they all reached for their headphones.

A deep voice filled the airwaves. "Uh…Hey. Yeah. I'm a bilingual belcher too. I can burp to ten in Spanish, although I don't exactly hide that fact."

"Whatever, dude, I'll take anything. Let's hear it." Robbie sighed.

The caller proceeded to belch numerically, slowly and agonizingly loud, causing Ray to lend an admiring ear and relax slowly, sinking back into his seat. Robbie just rolled back his chair with a look of disgust at the direction the show had taken. Travis sat sulking in the tech booth, pretending to be searching the CD stacks.

After the guttural recitation, there was a beat or two of silence before Lily stuttered for something to say. "Uh…well….it had nice…tone?" Her look of horror still frozen on her face.

Ray leaned into his mic. "Don't listen to her, man. That's mad talent! How do you get it to sound so…explosive?"

The caller's voice obviously filled with pride, "Tuesday's Chicken Casserole Surprise at the cafeteria." He then belched out loud and long the word, "Suurrrrrppprriiiiiiiisse!"

Ray slapped his hand onto the table in appreciation. "DuHude! I could almost smell that one from here!"

"Oh, gross, Pronto! Really nice." Lily said, looking at Ray with that same frozen look of horror.

"Ooookaaaay. How about a song to clear the auditory palette?" Robbie nodded to Travis, who seemed oblivious to the request as he continued to obstinately ignore the group.

"Smog? Song?" Robbie intoned a little louder.

Travis' head snapped up. "Oh. Right.," and flipped the necessary switch.

Robbie threw off his head phones in frustration. "Great show so far. Why do we even bother? It can only go South from here."

Lily tried to lighten the mood, "Well if that's the case, then I really dread the next caller."

The joke fell flat and the foursome sat in tense silence for the next few minutes.

The phone rang again and Robbie glared at Travis, who apparently had abandoned his duty of call-screening to practice feigning indifference. Lily and Ray were doing a pretty good job of that too; Lily refolding her bandanna and Ray picking at his cuticles.

He couldn't do it; Robbie flipped the switch to accept the call and override the music.

"RFR, you're on the air."

"Hi. Are you still talking about hidden talents?"

"Or belching them." Robbie muttered.

Lily gave him a look and spoke into her mic, "Yes! Yes we are! You have one you want to share?"

This time the voice was feminine, shy and unsure, the very opposite of the previous caller. "Well, it's something I've always done, but just recently someone labeled it as talent."

Grateful for a more suitable caller, Lily prodded her on. "Really? We'd love to hear about it!"

"Well it's poetry. I've always kept a journal and would write little things here and there. Just to vent, you know? Unwind?"

"Sure," Robbie added anxiously, "I'd say Shady uses her songs that way a lot." Maybe he could keep Ray and Travis out of this dangerous turn in conversation.

"Yeah. But I didn't really think they were good like that, you know? That is until this week. In English, we had to write and recite a haiku. Mrs. Willoughby, that's my teacher, she said I have a knack for it."

The caller then recited her haiku and Travis recognized it as the one he'd heard about snowfall that was rather good. He glanced up to see Ray had resumed his Glare of Hatred.

Robbie watched the faces of Ray and Travis. He clenched his jaw awaiting the fallout.

Lily kept right on talking to the girl, not noticing the rapidly rising tension in the room. "That's great! It's so fun when assignments can involve things we love."

Travis chimed in, "Yeah, that was a great haiku. Poetry is a great way to release emotion indirectly and the creative process can be helpful and healing too."

Robbie started to relax, thinking it was possible to get through the show without incident, but that was before Pronto blurted, "You'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Smog?"

Travis narrowed his eyes, not backing down. "Sure. It's a well-known fact that repression of emotions can cause serious issues. I'd think you, of all people, would know that, Pronto." Leaning forward, he went in for the kill, fight or flight. "Then again, you've always had trouble with expression, haven't you? To the point that you have to steal someone else's."

Robbie scrambled for the board, "And it's time for another tune." He disconnected the caller and when he was sure Travis had started the music, he yelled, "That's IT! I'm tired of all the back-handed insults! Just deal with this, TODAY, or don't come back!" He snatched up his backpack from the floor and stormed out of the station.

Lily spun around to look at Travis. "Is that what this is about? He stole a haiku? But Ray always mooches, it can't be that big of a deal!" She spun back around to Ray. "Ray?"

"Yeah, Swami, so I borrowed a few words. Shouldn't mean anything to a guy who is always after what isn't his." He stood up, legs spread wide, arms crossed.

Lily watched with trepidation as Travis slowly came out of the tech booth. She felt the increasing urge to step between them but was tired of being the one in the dark. With a sinking feeling, she began to realize what this might really be about.

Avoidance no longer an issue, Travis stood face to face with Ray. "And what exactly would that be, Ray? What have I stolen?"

Ray squirmed slightly, suddenly not comfortable stating things so directly. "You know damn well what it is."

Travis took another step closer to Ray, staring him down. "See, that's just it, Ray. I don't know that." He gestured toward Lily, sitting stunned in her chair. "I'm pretty sure she's not aware of it either. Nothing new there."

Lily looked from one to the other, realizing their anger was getting out of control. "Wait, we aren't talking about a haiku anymore." She got up, trying to circle around the boys and step between them.

"You've always known how I felt about her, Swami." Ray spoke through clenched teeth. "I didn't think you would stab me in the back twice."

Travis' voice was deceptively calm. "You are so narcissistic, Ray. You expect all of us to adhere to some code. The whole world is supposed to revolve around your unexpressed emotions. Life isn't like that. I can't stop feeling for Lily just because you tell me to." He looked down at his wrist, still bearing the mark from his spar with Lily. "I've tried it once. This time, it's not going to happen like that."

Ray stepped up, pushing his chest out; he was right in Travis' face, "Oh, it's not going to happen at all, Strong."

Lily started to push between them, "This is stupid. Stop. Now!"

Ray struggled against Lily, "Back off, Travis! I liked her first!"

Travis' voice boomed out. "Are you listening to yourself? You are acting like she's some toy in the sandbox that you don't want to share!"

Lily was directly between them now, sandwiched, and getting squished by all the raging testosterone. "I said STOP!"

"I shouldn't have to share! She belongs with me! Ask her, she'll tell you!" Ray continued to shove, trying to get at Travis.

Travis stood his ground, his voice lowering dangerously again, "She's a person. She belongs to no one. She can do what she wants, just like me."

Ray's head was nodding furiously, "Oh, yeah? Well, I'll show you what I can do then!"

Ray was trying to get Lily out of his way and she was steadfastly holding him back as she rounded on Travis, "Why are you pushing him?"

"Because we shouldn't have to walk on eggshells because he can't express how he feels, Lily!" Travis had to step back a bit because Lily was losing her battle a bit at trying to contain Ray.

"You should talk!..." She started to say more but had to really exert herself to give Ray a good shove back. The look of frustration and hurt on her face caused Travis to rethink his "fight or flight" theory. Surely, this couldn't be the answer.

"Lily, would you just move out of the wa….," Ray grabbed her arm, intending to yank her safely out of the way.

Everything happened in slow motion then. Lily's instincts seemed to have kicked in from her classes. When Ray grabbed her arm so tightly, she immediately raised her foot and stomped hard on his instep, spun and brought her right fist around, quick and sure. Ray's head snapped back with the force of the connection.

Time began to move normally again but no one dared to move. Travis was staring in open-mouthed shock. Ray blinked a few times as a trickle of blood trailed out of his now-broken nose. He shuffled backwards and fell into his chair repeating, "Ow, ow, ow…"

Lily immediately dropped, kneeling in front of him, "ohmygod…ohmygod, Ray, I'm so so sorry."

Still in shock, he responded simply, "Ooo hid me," The quick swell of tissue causing his speech to slur.

She whispered, "So so sorry. I didn't mean…"

Ray repeated, "Ooo, hid me."

Travis finally came to life and stated matter-of-factly, "Well, she wouldn't have if you hadn't man-handled her. Lily, are you okay?"

Lily stood quickly and rounded on him, "He wasn't the only one!"

Travis replied indignantly, "I didn't even touch you!"

"No, you wouldn't." She stated cryptically. She pointed to Ray, "You blame him for not being honest and open, but you aren't either, Travis. I don't know how either of you really feel but you expect me to just instantly choose between you? How is that fair?"

She looked down at Ray, "I thought we were past all this."

Her voice shook, and tears began to fall. "Both of you are guilty of trying to control how I feel." She looked at the ceiling, "Why should I expect either of you to be any better? I can't even do that myself!"

Both boys looked at her in confusion.

Lily winced and brought her hand up, the pain finally making itself know. Travis reached out to her to try and take a look but Lily snatched it away, "Don't touch me."

She looked at Travis' concerned face to Ray, still hunched over in the chair chanting, "ow, ow, ow." Her anger dissipated like a worn out party balloon. The tears came faster then, making the scene before her as blurry as her emotions.

Both boys stared as she whirled around and bolted out of the station, no longer able to stand between them for another second.

A/N: Let's see…nope…I got nothin'. But I did listen to Alexz Johnson obsessively this week and this song reminded me of RFR so much. (And Trily.) Yesh, I'm singing it…to every one of you.

There's me looking down at my shoes
The one smiling like the sun, that's you
What were you thinking
What was the song inside your head

There's us going on about a band
Working out how we'd play our hands
I'd lay there dreaming later on alone in my bed.

If I was stupid, maybe careless
So were you.

Not everything is supposed to come true
Some words are best unsaid
Some love is not really love at all
I keep everything I shared with you
And that's enough
There's us.