Chapter 10: Nocturne in C Minor
Trowa stared hard out the window. He was curled up on the window seat, watching and listening to the rain, which pounded mercilessly onto the field below. Outside, Heero's soccer team practiced relentlessly, but Trowa hadn't noticed this. He hadn't spoken or moved all day since he had woken 5 hours before. He'd had a horrific nightmare the night before. He could hardly remember what it had been about, but he had a vague sense of screams and gunshots. He didn't know what exactly had happened after the nightmare, but he supposed he must have cried out because he had a vague memory of thrashing against Quatre's soothing hands. After that, there was warm water, and finally dry sheets. His whole body burned in shame as he realized what his friends had had to do for him. He pulled his knees closer to his chest, and rested his head on them. It was still raining.
The door to their room opened and closed quietly, and Quatre tip toed in. Trowa had been horribly sick the night before. He'd woken at 3 am screaming about everyone being dead, and he'd fought hard against any comforting touch; Quatre had a black eye to prove it. When he'd finally calmed enough, Duo and Quatre had carried him to the bathroom. Quatre had held him and soothed him as he vomited and retched into the toilet. Afterwards, they got him into a warm bath with much difficulty because sometime between retching and gasping, Trowa had gone completely limp and his eyes had gone glassy. He was somewhere else, which was probably a blessing in disguise. Meanwhile, Wufei and Heero had stripped his drenched bed and replaced the sheets. By the time they'd gotten Trowa back to bed, they were all exhausted, but wide awake. A thick silence descended over the room, but none of them had gotten anymore sleep that night.
So it was with great trepidation that Quatre disturbed Trowa's self-enforced solitude and sat down next to Trowa on the window seat. For a moment, neither spoke, and then:
"Hey," Quatre intoned quietly.
He received no verbal response, but slowly, ever so slowly, Trowa uncoiled himself and stretched his legs out in front of him. He turned his gaze from the rain to Quatre's face, and for a moment Quatre saw nothing but green. He blinked and smiled softly at Trowa, who inclined his head in response. Quatre sighed heavily; sometimes there were no words. Instead he curled himself up and lay down, his head resting on Trowa's lap. He felt Trowa stiffen, and waited with baited breath to see what he would do. Eventually, he heard Trowa exhale and felt the muscles in his legs start to relax. Suddenly Quatre felt the last night catch up with him. His whole body seemed to weigh a tonne and his eyelids two each. They fluttered closed and he shut out the world. Just before he fell asleep, he felt a brush of fingertips by his temple. Trowa was stroking his hair.
When Quatre awoke hours later, Trowa was nowhere to be found. He frowned delicately, wondering how Trowa had managed to move without waking him. He stretched and stumbled, trying to shake feeling into his numb limbs. He looked at the clock, which read 5:30, and gasped with surprise: He had been asleep for more than 5 hours.
"Duo wanted to wake you, but Trowa said you needed the sleep."
Quatre whirled around, heart pounding, to find Wufei sitting cross legged on his bunk with an open book in his lap. He exhaled in relief.
"Allah, Wufei! I thought I was alone."
Wufei allowed a small smile of amusement to cross his lips.
"The others went down to dinner. I was waiting for you to wake up."
Quatre grinned wryly to himself. Wufei always got straight to the point.
"I guess we should catch up with them then."
Wufei nodded in response. As the two set out for the mess hall, a thought occurred to Quatre.
"Wufei, was Trowa feeling better?"
Wufei took a moment to answer.
"It was hard to tell. Barton doesn't exactly wear his heart on his sleeve, but I believe he was better. He was more alert than this morning, but still quieter than usual."
Quatre smiled to himself. Wufei still referred to his friends by their last names whenever he was worried about them. He was ashamed of showing his concern, but Quatre wasn't fooled by his gruff manner at all. They walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence.
The mess hall was packed. It was Saturday night, and practically everybody was crammed into the small cafeteria.
"Oi! Quat, Fei, over here!"
Quatre and Wufei homed in on the source of Duo's voice, which was coming from their left. Trowa, Duo, and Heero were seated at a table with Joshua, Robbie, and a few people Quatre and Wufei had never seen before. They crossed the room and sat down at the two empty spots.
"Hey guys, we saved you some dinner!" Duo said cheerily, gesturing at the two trays in front of Quatre and Wufei.
"Gee, thanks Duo," Wufei said sarcastically as he took his own plate, which looked considerably less edible than the plate of spaghetti Quatre was given.
"Is it my fault the cafeteria ladies decided mystery meat was on the menu?" Duo asked innocently. Wufei glowered at Duo, but made no other comments as he dug into his food.
Quatre tuned Duo out as he began describing his antics at hockey practice earlier that day. He looked over at Trowa, who smiled slightly at him.
"Did you have a good sleep?"
Relieved that Trowa was talking again, Quatre nodded, his cheeks colouring ever so slightly.
"Yeah, but you shouldn't have let me sleep that long. I'll never get to sleep tonight!"
"You looked like you needed it," Trowa's face twisted into a grimace, "I'm sorry I kept you up last night."
"Oh, Trowa…"
Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by Duo, who was loudly asking a question.
"So what do you think of that plan, guys?"
"Sorry?" Quatre asked, his expression puzzled.
Duo gave a long suffering sigh.
"You guys never listen to a word I say, do you?"
Duo waved Quatre's second apology away impatiently.
"Joshua and Robbie want to know if we want to come to the park with them tonight. We can bring a Frisbee and toss it around or something."
Quatre looked over at Trowa to make sure, but when Trowa nodded, Quatre smiled brightly at Robbie.
"We'd love to go."
After obtaining a permit to leave the school, the group made their way to the park. After a rousing game of ultimate Frisbee, which Duo, Heero, Robbie, and Joshua won by a slight margin against Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei, the group wound up sitting in a circle.
"Whew! Great game, guys!" Duo's cheerful voice broke the comfortable silence.
"For a moment there, I thought Quatre might actually catch the disc," Joshua smiled cheekily.
Managing a highly affronted look, Quatre snorted, "Are you suggesting that I am a less than competent player?"
Teasingly, Duo said "No, he's suggesting you were too busy looking at Trowa to notice the Frisbee!"
Blushing deep red, Quatre muttered "I was worried."
"What was that, Quatre?" Heero asked, a grin spreading across his normally impassive face.
"Nevermind," Quatre mumbled, and he looked up, only to find all 6 of his friends grinning at him, including Trowa.
"Guys! Stop pulling my leg!"
Suddenly Robbie spoke up for the first time.
"Look, guys, the sunset is beautiful!"
Everyone turned around to look. The sky was streaked with pink and orange, even tinted purple in places. Glad the attention was off him, Quatre smiled serenely. The sunset may have been artificially generated, but that didn't take away from its beauty. If Robbi had asked Quatre this time the year before if he thought the sunset was beautiful, Quatre would not have had time to answer him. So Quatre took this moment of peace, with his friends all around, and cherished it for all he knew it was worth. Today was a good day.
"One! Two! Three! Four! Charlie, keep your stomach in!" Nine! Ten! Okay, start running. Go! Faster, Kael!"
Quatre and Trowa grinned to each other as the other boys groaned in dismay. It was Monday night gymnastics practice and Coach Riker was really driving them hard. They were playing a particularly brutal conditioning "game" which involved them sprinting around the gym until the coach yelled out some exercise and a number. Once they had finished the exercise, they had to continue running until the coach finally called it off. Usually he did so after about 15 minutes of this, but tonight he was stepping it up. Their first meet was in one month, and he wanted the team to make a good impression.
"Push-ups, 30!" the coach yelled, and the 6 of them dropped to fulfill his command. The other 4 boys struggled hard, Kael collapsing in the middle of his 10th push up. They had been at this for almost half an hour, and though Quatre and Trowa were only just starting to feel the burn, the others were almost past the point of exhaustion. Coach Riker, seeing this, called his team off.
"Okay boys, run another lap to cool down and then you're done." He chuckled slightly as every boy sighed with relief.
"I'm gonna be so sore tomorrow," Charlie groaned in dismay.
"Ha! We haven't even stretched yet, Charlie," Kael said despondently, his small body shaking from exertion.
"The things we suffer for love of this sport…" Andy sighed melodramatically as the group slowed to a walk.
Quatre and Trowa grinned at each other as they began stretch warm up.
"Hey Quat, you think you can outflip me today?"
Quatre scoffed in self-depreciation. "Hardly."
Trowa was fast becoming the rising star of the team. His circus training allowed him to excel on floor and high bar, and his other events weren't too shabby either. Quatre was having a harder time of it. He could chuck most of the skills, even a double back flip if he wanted to. He was only having trouble making it look good. Elegance and form came only with practice. Coach Riker didn't seem too worried though. He kept saying it would come with time.
The boys lined up to practice their tumbling. They started with the basics: round-offs and back handsprings. When it came to Quatre's turn for the third time, Coach Riker asked if he was ready to try for a double back. To be honest, Quatre was really nervous about flipping twice in the air, but he had been trained not to express fear. Fear was usually a useless emotion. Trowa smiled encouragingly down at Quatre.
"You can do it, Quat. I know you can."
Quatre smiled back and nodded at the coach, who took up spotting position. Quatre saluted and took off. He gathered speed and momentum in his round-off back handspring, and pushed up as hard as he could from his back handspring to do the double back. Right from take off, he could tell something was off. He was crooked in the air. The coach made sure he completed the two rotations without landing on his neck, but he could do nothing to prevent the searing pain that Quatre felt on impact, as his left ankle buckled underneath him. Gasping, Quatre curled his body into a fetal position, clutching his ankle. He couldn't catch his breath, the pain was white hot, and he had no doubt that he had torn something.
"Quatre! Are you alright?"
The question came again and again, but Quatre gave no answer. His mind was pain-fogged, and he sighed in relief when he felt a familiar presence next to him.
"Quatre, what's your status?" Though the question sounded impersonal, Trowa's tone was infinitely gentle, and his hand on Quatre's shoulder indicated his support. In between gasps, Quatre reassured Trowa.
"I'm… I'm okay."
"Can I see?" With effort, Quatre removed his hands from his ankle, which was already swelling and turning blue. He heard a few of his teammates wince in sympathy, and the coach gently elevated his leg.
"Trowa, he needs to go to the nurse's station." Trowa nodded.
"Quatre, can you walk on it?"
"That's really not advisable," Coach Riker broke in, eyes wide at the suggestion. Trowa just shrugged.
"Alright then." He gently lifted Quatre to his feet. Quatre leaned dizzily against him, standing on his good leg.
"C'mon, Quat," Trowa said, his voice surprisingly gentle, "I'll carry you."
Quatre nodded gratefully and jumped with his good leg onto Trowa's back. Trowa caught him and lifted him higher, gently.
"Are you sure you can piggy-back him the whole way, Barton?" Trowa just stared at the coach with an offended look.
"Of course I can."
"Andy! You're in charge of practice. Don't let anyone do anything dangerous until I'm back."
Without further ado, the three of them left the gym for the nurse's station.
"Look boys, there are stairs ahead. Trowa, are you sure you can carry him up the stairs? Maybe Quatre should try limping up them."
Trowa just sent him a withering look and climbed the stairs. Though Quatre had stayed quiet the whole way, he could tell Quatre was in a lot more pain than he was letting on. He was tense all over and holding his breath.
As soon as they reached the nurses station, Coach Riker paged the nurse. As Quatre was being examined, Trowa activated the watch turned communicator Commander Une had given them all at the start of this whole "mission." Heero's face appeared on the screen.
"Yes?'
"There was an accident at practice. Quatre's been hurt."
"How badly?" Heero asked in a clipped tone.
"It's a pretty bad ankle sprain. I think he's torn about 3 ligaments."
"We'll be there soon. Heero out."