When the ocean meets fire

~~~~~~~~~~~~Relief~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Commander?” Even his knock was irritating. Up had sat motionless for three hours straight, and it was now way past dinner. Peter had come to try and make him feel better- yeah, right; there was only one person who could ever make him feel better, especially at a time like this... “Commander, you have to eat something or you won’t have your strength for tomorrow! We missed quite a bit of our work-out today, so I took the liberty of booking us another session tomorrow! Isn’t that great?” Up stayed silent and motionless, except for the fact that his hands curled into fists, making the sheets on the bed twist beneath his fingers. He didn’t want to talk to anybody, and certainly not Peter.

Anyone would think he was overreacting; that he was just being ‘emotional because of his recent injury’ as he had heard nurses frequently saying to anybody who came to ask how he was. But this wasn’t about him. He had failed Taz and now she was never going to get the same respect as she had loved before. She was always going to be tied to him: the tough son-of-a-bitch commander turned little girl. She wasn’t even allowed to go on missions for months because she’d seen him get torn in two. He’d watched her grow from a scared and grieving 15-year-old in a torn Quincenera dress into- well...the best dead-god damn lieutenant... and friend... he’d ever had. And now she was back to just working out in the gym again; it was like she was back at the academy training to be a ranger. He hated to see her getting so bored, and he hated it even more that it was his fault.

So no: it wasn’t the fact that he was ‘scarred by the horrors of his injury’, or ‘just needed someone to talk to about his feelings’ like he’d heard Peter say to another of his patronising trainer friends. It was because it had hit him that his one true friend in the whole of the Galactic League didn’t want to know him anymore, and when he was going to tell her... never mind. His thoughts were rudely interrupted, again, by that annoying knock and matching voice, “Hey, Commander! I brought you some pizza!” That idiot didn’t take a hint, did he? Up got up off the edge of his bed, and stalked over to the door. “Come on, Commander! I you’d like we could watch a movie or something?” That was the last straw: Up yanked open the door so Peter almost fell into him, but immediately shrunk back when he saw Up’s face. Up stood up to his full height and glowered at Peter, who looked like he was using the plate of pizza as shield. “Commander, I’m sorry... I just thought you might want- I mean, you seem so, uh. I just thought that you might need cheering up.” Peter finished and seemed relieved that he’d found what he thought was a suitable excuse. He’d thought wrong.

“What in dead-god’s name made you think I’d want to talk to you?” Up snarled at him and leaned forward slightly, eyes boring into Peter’s intimidatingly. “Uh, well... we’re friends aren’t we? And we could watch a movie! What’s your favourite?” Dead-god that man was too optimistic for his own good, “Peter, can I make something clear to you now?” Up softened his voice and Peter nodded, obviously thinking that he had made Up talk about his feelings, “we,” Up made a circle between himself and Peter with his hand, “will never be friends.” Peter’s expression changed almost comically, “and how dare you even suggest that I would want to watch a movie with you” Peter momentarily looked confused at how Up emphasised the ‘you’ but then quickly regained his look of fear when he looked back at Up and stuttered a “see you!” before blatantly running away. Up leant against the doorframe and threw his fist down on the wood, “patronising git!” he wasn’t even pleased that he’d managed to reduce a man to a stuttering wimp for the first time in what seemed like an age, “how dare he ask if I’d like to watch a movie,” he didn’t even care that technically it wasn’t fair on Peter; no one knew that Taz and him watched The Karate Kid almost every night, “sure I’d like to watch a movie, but only with Taz. And that’s never gonna happen,” Up sighed and pressed his head back against the doorframe to push himself back to standing. He paused before walking into his room and closing the door behind him, “as much as I love her, it’s never gonna happen.”