Silence | Book 1

2-7: Berlin 1

"Let's see... I got two packs of each: tuna, bacon and egg, club chicken, and vegetarian mozzarella cheese sandwiches. Who wants what?" Tristan asked, as he took the packages of sandwiches out of his loaded backpack and tossed them onto the small table below the train window as the misty, early morning countryside whizzed by in high speed. The sun had just risen above the horizon, burning the low mist away from between the passing trees and fields in a soft golden fury.
"I'll take vegetarian please." Liz said, reaching past Tristan who sat beside her on the window side and picking out the two packs.
"I'll have bacon and egg, and chicken then." Killian said, as he quickly grabbed the packs he wanted.
"Sam?" Tristan asked with a smile.
"What do you want?" She said back.
"I'll just have what's left." He said, gesturing towards the packages left. Sam didn't hesitate to take the tuna and chicken sandwiches, leaving Tristan with tuna and bacon and egg. Since he had left too early for a proper breakfast, he happily tore into the tuna sandwiches. The others apparently had the same issue, and for a moment everyone was quiet as they dug into their food.
"So what's the plan? Win, check out Berlin, have dinner then go home?" Killian said after he'd inhaled his first sandwich with barely so much as chewing.
"I don't know if we'll win, but the rest sounds fine. Our tickets back are for 8 o'clock."
"This is going to be a long day." Killian lamented, leaning back into his chair and looking sideways out of the window.
"Look on the upside, we get to go to Berlin for free." Liz said with a grin, trying to cheer everyone up on their early morning. Meanwhile Sam had dug up a printed out list of arguments that Tristan had composed, running through it on her own in silence.
"Quick question?" She asked, and Tristan immediately perked up.
"Yes?"
"Do you think they will be able to improvise arguments against us that are not on this list?"
"Hm." Tristan said as he ran a hand over his cleanly shaven chin, but then shook his head.
"They're not debating in their native language, so I doubt it, but it's best not to underestimate them. So let's be prepared to have to improvise as well."
"Ugh... it's too early for this," Killian complained. "Can't we just talk like we're friends?"
"What would you like to talk about then?"
"I don't know, anything yer going to do?" He sputtered back, realising that maybe it was a lost cause.
"Oh! My parents and I are going to a gaming convention next month." Liz said excitedly.
"Anything new you want to pick up?"
"I guess anything with dragons will do. But there hasn't been much original fantasy stuff lately." She sighed. "Most of it is just shooters and pvp, or jrpgs."
"You hit a bit of a dry spell?"
"Yeah, it seems horror and sci-fi is all there is now, and here I am just wanting to stand victorious atop a dragon. But I'll look out for new things to find." She said with a grin, hoping not to be disappointed just yet.
"What about you Sam?" Killian asked Sam, who was still reading the arguments despite his earlier complaints. She shrugged and continued to read as she answered.
"The usual, classes, debate and a few friendly football matches."

As she answered, Tristan sat up straight, before realising it was maybe weird to be so excited to tell them – or that perhaps it was best not to tell at all, afraid of getting teased with it. Despite him sitting back down again, Killian had already noticed.
"Did you want to share something?" He asked with an impish grin. "Are you going to a boring, old, dead dudes convention? Or the library?"
"No." Tristan answered a little irritated, more and more wanting to be left alone.
"Come on, you can tell us." Killian said, the grin widening.
"It's nothing, I'm just going to get coffee with... someone?" His voice got increasingly softer, realising he probably shouldn't have even said that much.
"Oooh, is it a date?" Liz asked, so excited for him she nearly bounced in her chair. He just quickly shook his head, regretting every action that led up to this.
"You're going on a date?" Killian asked incredulous.
"No!" Tristan sputtered defensively. "It's not a date, and even if it is why couldn't I go on a date? What am I, Quasimodo?!" He snapped back, his voice increasingly louder and agitated until he realised himself that he had overreacted. Quietly he sat back down and stared at his hands folded in his lap, trying to ease up his breathing and pretend the other three weren't just looking at him with their mouths agape.
"Nobody said anything like that Trissy?" Liz tried softly, taken aback by his reaction but nonetheless giving his shoulder a gentle shake.
"Sorry." He mumbled, slightly in shock about his own reaction as well.
"You nervous?" Killian asked, with a knowing smile. Tristan nodded, the heavy and tense feeling in his chest was all too familiar. "Seriously though, what are you going to do?"
"Nothing... just going to get a coffee with Hibiki." He said as he shook his head, frustrated it had been made into such a big deal.
"Oh. Then why are you being so mysterious about it?" Killian asked in surprise.
"Because you are going to pester me with it!" Tristan answered rather exasperated.
"Of course not, why would I pester you for being gay? There's nothing wrong with that." Killian grinned, despite trying to sound genuine.
"Because I'm not you... you fucking muppet..." Tristan mumbled angrily as he realised that Killian was taking the piss out of him. He crossed his arms and leant back against the window, before taking an agitated bite out of another sandwich.
"Just ignore him." Liz said as she gave his shoulder another pat, and glared at Killian.
"Well he's not wrong? There's nothing wrong with it if you like Hibiki Triss." Sam said as she flipped another page of the summary.
"Don't you start too." Tristan said, half pleading, half exhausted by the argument already.
"How about we change the topic?" Liz suggested still as chipper as ever. "What would you guys like to eat tonight?"