an unkindness of ravens

cinq

— cinq ; five —

THE REST OF THE day followed much the same as the way it started, with two half hour breaks during the twelve hour cycle and one hour allowed off for lunch. Practice didn't slow down, wasn't allowed to, and Henri barely had time to draw his breath the entire day. The lunch break would have been awkward and uncomfortable, but Henri was too drained to care about the other Ravens. After scarfing down food to appease his growling stomach, he paced up and down the stands to get away from them and was content to pretend they didn't exist. They returned the favour, but Henri felt it had more to do with whatever Soren said to them when he walked away than out of any respect for him.

He felt like he hadn't slept in forty-eight hours and was practically dragging his feet by seven in the evening. The day had been too packed for him to think about anything other than Exy, but as the day wore on, darker thoughts began peeking through that he wasn't strong enough to push down. The echo of an Exy ball off the court walls sounded like a gunshot and if he closed his eyes for too long, he saw the dead bodies of his parents. He wanted to curl up on his side and sleep for the rest of his life, but even when practice ended, he wasn't allowed to leave that easily. The spent another hour discussing the drills and scrimmages of the day, where they did well and how to improve.

"Moreau," Alixis said sharply, snapping her fingers in his face. He raised his eyes to her face to see the Ravens were looking at him expectantly. "Are you listening?"

Maybe Henri should have lied, but he didn't care enough to. Whatever he said wouldn't change their low opinion of him. "No."

Her hazel eyes narrowed. "You're a rookie here, and it would do you well to glean what you can so you aren't completely useless to us."

Henri had nothing to say to that and gazed back at her in silence, hoping she'd get the cue to leave him alone. She pursed her lips but grudgingly moved on to the topic of shifting the defence line. Tetsuji finally allowed them to disperse at eight in the evening, and the Ravens filed to the locker room, showering and changing out one by one before heading down to the Nest. Soren was called to stay behind with Tetsuji, but Henri didn't slow down to see what they were speaking about. He sat on the tiled floor of the shower for too long, staring at his pale and slim fingers, waiting to see his parents blood spilling across them.

Henri made a beeline straight for his bedroom in the Black Hall once he had showered and changed. He had to pass through the living area and half expected a confrontation from one of the Ravens lounging there, maybe KJ or Benjamin, but they let him pass without much trouble. Maybe they'd given up on him and would just leave him alone now. The bedroom was empty when he reached, Soren nowhere in sight, and Henri was glad. He felt worn down at the edges and his whole body aching from bruises and lack of sleep. He kicked off his shoes, dropped down on top of the covers and didn't even bother changing before he fell asleep instantly.

A loud bang startled him awake and he jolted upright, heart racing a mile a minute. It took his disorientated brain a second to realise the sound had been Soren slamming the door shut behind him, his hair wet from a recent shower and his expression grim. He stared at Henri, who blinked blearily back at him as he tried to get his bearings, and finally shook his head.

"Get up," he ordered. "We're going out."

"Huh?"

"Are you always this stupid when you wake up or it just all the time?" He sighed and snatched up his keys from the bedside table. "I've been tasked with the job of getting you clothes to wear. Unless you plan on wearing that outfit for the rest of your life, which means I'm not living with you."