Post Olympic

Sparrow

Uhm? the beginning of Fen and Nico? I think yes

Alsoooooo - swearing and mentions of death. 

Music:

Bambi - Hippo Campus

Alright, enjoy, I had to choppity choppity this scene right in half so, I'll post that later

-rabid

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"Wall sits," I holler into the weight room. "Everyone on a wall, come on, move." They line up on the walls. I set a timer on a stopwatch. Ten minutes.

"What are we doing?" Ireland asks. They're tired after the mile repeats I've just made them do.

"Wall sits, dummy. For ten minutes." He rolls his eyes. I start the timer and grab a disk weight off of one of the machines. I walk it over to Ireland and drop it on his lap. He groans lightly and I grin. I walk back over and grab more weights. I slap one onto Sauerkraut, one on Greenbean, one on Pikachu, Yeti, Keegan, Blacksmith, Popcorn, I make laps back and forth.

"Don't you think this is a little much?" Ireland is out of breath. I take my own sweet time picking out the biggest and baddest of weights. I pick it up and walk over to him, slipping it on top of his first.

"What the fuck is your problem?" He asks. I walk back and grab another. "Do you have it out for me?" I drop it on, letting it clatter.

"No." I scoff. "You're annoying as fuck."

"I bet you just like me." He wheezes over the weight. I lean over and grab one of Sauerkraut's weights, knowing damm well he's the one I like instead. I flop it onto Ireland. He whines a bit.

"Bitch, why the hell do you think that?"

"Fight me."

"It's not worth it." I laugh. "Everyone stand but Ireland." Weights clatter to the floor and I watch the room stand.

"What now," Sauerkraut asks me. I hold up a hand.

"Count down from 360." I turn to them, "come on,"

"360, 359, 358, 357," they begin and I start to collect more weights. I drop them one by one on Ireland. He gets red in the face and starts to pant. Soon he holds his breath and fights through it.

"201, 200, 199, 198," they keep going and I squat down in front of him.

"Challenge me now, will you?" He opens his mouth and all that comes out is a whine of pain. "Stop." I command. The room goes quiet and he shoves the weights off of his lap, collapsing. I pat his knee. "Get up, noodle legs." He shakes when he stands and I feel his need to punch me. "Go home everyone, practice is over." Ireland spins on his heel and almost runs out of the room.

"Hey, I got your email," Sauerkraut is the last to leave the weight room.

"Yeah, uh," I told him that he needs to work on starts, just that. His list was one of the shortest on the team. "So, basically your explosiveness needs extra work,"

"Yeah, I don't really know how to work on that, I should, but," he gives me a sheepish little smile. I take a look out the window.

"We've got a half hour until the storm blows over, meet me on the field." He nods and I stand in the weight room for a second, drills. What do I know for this. Sauerkraut fills up his water bottle in the corner and then pushes the door open to outside.

"Aright," I've got a small bag of stuff over my shoulder and I catch him watching the clouds roll in.

"Those thunder you think?" He asks, wringing his hands.

"No," I walk up right next to him and point. "See how low the heads are on them?"

"Yeah?"

"And they're grey. Thunderheads are taller, and they turn this pretty deep blue color,"

"Always?"

"Most always," I sigh. "Liza and I would watch storms come in over the harbor back in Boston. If they were grey, we would cover our stuff and enjoy the rain. If they were purple, we would hunt for a bridge to hide under," I mumble. "Now I get to just go inside,"

"You keep in touch with her?" He asks. I feel a pang go through my chest.

"No," I sigh. "Sometimes I feel like she tries," I shake my head, trying not to let my voice shake. "She loved sparrows for some reason. Every time I see one, it reminds me of her." I take a second. Two. "She told me that her grandfather would tell her when she was little that every soul gets a day as a bird after they die, to fly to heaven. I see them, and I know it's stupid, but I like to think it's her, checking in on me before heading into the sky to be with him again."

Fenrir opens his mouth next to me, then closes it again. I see him struggle.

"It's okay, you don't have to say anything,"

"I'm sorry," he mumbles. I nod. I've heard it. I've heard that a lot.

"I know," I sigh. "Everyone is."

"How, how did she," He clears his throat.

"Die?" I ask. He's looking at me instead of the storm. "I don't know." I let out a long breath. "They found her in the harbor. I was the one to identify the body. They say she threw herself in. I still don't believe that." He doesn't respond to this verbally. Instead, he slips his arm around my shoulders and gives me a hug from the side.

"How, did, you uh," he tries to start talking again. "How do you do it?" I shrug under his arm. "Your life, it seems to be," he chokes. "Riddled, with death, misfortune." he drops his head. I sigh.

"Fenrir, you," I clear my throat. "You eventually accept that life is fragile. You accept someone's death before you accept them. You have to understand with all starts, there's an end, and there's nothing you can do about it. You just have to keep going. Live for those who can't live for themselves." He sniffs next to me and I back out of his arm. "Come on, Sauerkraut, we have work to do before the storm."

"Yeah, I guess we do," He turns to me and I just look back. He lets out a long sigh and we don't break eye contact. "I don't think I could do that, Nico."

"What?"

"Live through that. Live with that. Any of that." He drops his head.

"You would," I drop the bag to the ground and pull out a couple things. "You just find things that distract you, things to vent with."

"What do you do?" He sits down next to me, his hands slipping the gear from mine, assembling it on his own.

"Hockey, mostly," I watch him work on the gear, his long thin fingers are agile and nimble. "That was when I got good, when my mom died, I drowned myself in mindless physical conditioning." I flop back in the grass, the air is starting to get heavy from the oncoming storm. "After Liza, I got real numb for a while. I didn't feel anything. After the olympics, all I felt was anger. All the time."

"But now you're here," he looks up at me, setting down the thingy he was working on. I watch him fall into the grass next to me.