The Return (Quan zhi gao shou/The Kings Avatar)

Ett

It's not every day when you win the European GLORY finals, Tessa thought.

But winning always comes with a price.

Despite having a short period of rest after the match, her fingers were still shaking rapidly and even with the support of her teammates, Tessa struggled to hold the trophy. Beside her, Mathew noticed her discomfort and offered quietly to be the 'main supporter' of the trophy instead. She thanked him silently with a nod.

Looking back at the audience, the small smile reappeared on her lips again as she listened to the cheers of the people and acknowledging the few familiar faces of the cameramen in the front row.

She hoped they wouldn't catch the slight tremble of her fingers.

--

Finally reaching the room backstage with the tag Asguard on the door, Tessa was forced onto the sofa by Reece just before he left. The atmosphere was glum, completely opposite from what the winning team should feel like. Tessa smiled guiltily, knowing exactly what she had done to upset the whole team. But then again, without that, the team would have probably lost and the glum atmosphere would still be there.

Right after Reece closed the door, Mathias began to yell. "What the hell were you thinking back there?" Tessa was surprised to hear the edge of annoyance in his tone instead of the normally expected aggressiveness. His brows were furrowed more and usual as he ran a hand through his blonde hair, messing up the hard work of the hair stylists. 

Her best friend Christina, who had bent down to examine her hands, slapped Mathias on the leg to silence him. He shut up, but the red face was enough evidence that he still had much more to say. "I'll have to agree with him on this one. What you did back there was awesome, but irrational at the same time. Maintaining an average APM of 600 for 6 minutes is a big Nuh-uh." She held up one index finger and wriggled it.

The door behind her suddenly creaked open, revealing Reece clutching a warm towel.

"I'm back," he said as he shut the door. His presence calmed the atmosphere immediately. Maybe that was why the old captain chose him as the current captain instead of Mathew or Tessa -- his ability to glue together all the 'colourful' personalities in the room. Reece strode towards her, kneeled down, and wrapped the towel gently around her hands.

"Will she be okay?" Mathew who sat silently in the corner the whole time inquired his boyfriend.

Reece sighed. "I'm... not sure, but I already notified the staff about this, so a nurse is already on her way."

Mathew sighed too. "If only I realized their trick faster, she wouldn't have — "

"It's not your fault," Reece interrupted, "and it's not anyone's fault." His emerald eyes surveyed the room. "We did the best of what we could at that time, and there is no point regretting something that has already been done." His eyes then landed on Tessa. " And Tessa — Tessa simply just wanted to win, like all the rest of us do."

There was a long silence before Mathias broke it. "Wait a second. Where's emo kid?"

"You mean Bryan." Tessa corrected.

"Same thing." Mathias shrugged, earning a glare from Christina. 

"Seriously."

"I think I saw him outside somewhere," Mathew answered his twin. "He only came in to grab his earphones." 

"I'll go get him," Tessa stood up from her seat but was stopped by Reece.

He shook his head,"Let him calm down. He must be overwhelmed by all the noises from the crowd."

As if on cue, the door slowly creaked open as a small, shadowy figure slipped through, the only bright thing on him being his neon green headphones. From her sofa, Tessa could hear the faint classical music drifting from his earphones as the boy slowly made his way to a chair in the corner and curled up. There was suddenly a knock at the door and the boy flinched, shrinking even more in his seat. Mathias glared at the door for a second before getting up to open it.

"Hello, I am here to check on Ms.Tessa Bai." Reece nodded. Christina stood up to make space for the nurse. The nurse took her hand carefully, scrutinizing her hand. Tessa tensed at the sudden pain which shot up from her fingers when they were bent. 

After a while, the nurse finally looked up. 

"How is it?" Surprisingly, it was Mathias who asked first. He was responded with a frown. 

"It's temporary, but temporary enough to force her to halt her career as a professional gamer."

A loud crash was heard from the corner of the room. 

Bryan now stood up, the chair he previously sat on knocked to the floor. His earphones were still on, but the music was not doing its job anymore. Wincing at the attention upon him and the crash, his face was pale and his fingers started fluttering around, something he'd always done when panicking. 

Without warning, the boy suddenly bolted out of the room, dropping his headphones behind. 

"Bryan!" Tessa shot up from her spot.

The door was banged shut.