Memories

XVII

BODY TALKS

'You can be cool, you can be shy
Say what you want, say what you like
'Cause ooh, your body talks, your body talks'

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Dan led the way to the table, and Thalia immediately realised why their captain had been unimpressed by their seating arrangement - the Foxes were opposite the Ravens. It was inconvenient, sure, but Kevin was clearly feeling the effects of being around his old teammates, and Thalia wasn't sure whether the bottle of alcohol they'd shared in the parking lot minutes before would be a sufficient painkiller in this situation for him.

"Riko," Dan said, holding her hand across the table. It was startling to see the man Thalia knew had ruined Kevin's life in person. Riko Moriyama was about five foot five of lean, mean, torturing machine - Nicky's words, not Thalia's - and the one tattoo on his left cheekbone made Thalia want to take one of the knives she knew Andrew carried and cut it off his face. "Dan Wilds."

Riko offered Dan his hand, looking hilariously condescending. Thalia almost wanted to laugh at the way he'd positioned his hand to make it look like he were a king expecting a kiss on the top of his hand by a servant. Dan took it and gave it a quick squeeze. Riko smiled icily when she pulled away.

"I know who you are. Who here doesn't?" Riko said. "You're the woman who captains a Class I team. You've done admittedly well despite your disadvantages." It was clear Riko was talking not only about Kevin's injury that he was the cause of - Thalia wanted to punch him for looking so smug -but also about the team in general.

Thalia hadn't known much about the Foxes before joining, if anything at all. But she'd learned in more ways than one over the weeks she'd been on the team that they were all a bunch of rejects and screw-ups who Wymack had decided needed a 'second chance' as he put it.

"Do you want me to start listing them?" Riko said, and he sounded exhausted by the idea. "This is only a two day event, Hennessey." Thalia didn't know what that was supposed to mean, though by the way Matt tensed protectively at her side, it was clear that it had been her stripper name. Thalia looked sideways at her captain, who seemed unfazed by the name calling.

"Careful, Riko." Matt said dangerously. Thalia had never seen the happy giant act this way, and was almost amused by his protectiveness. Dan finally sat down opposite Riko, and the rest of the upperclassmen fanned out to one side of her, with the cousins, Kevin, Neil and Thalia on the other side. Riko turned on Thalia then and leaned across the table with his cruel smile in place.

"You're a new face," Riko said in probably what he thought was a calm and serene tone. But Thalia knew otherwise. "You must be Nathalia, right? You've probably heard my name, but I'm -"

"Riko Moriyama," Thalia interjected, still not fond of the name 'Nathalia' being thrown around in her presence. "Or more commonly known as 'Rat Bastard' within the team. And It's Thalia. No N and A in front of that. Just Thalia." Riko's smile turned colder than it had been when he'd looked at Dan. Nicky suppressed a laugh next to her and played it off as a cough, which Thalia didn't find convincing.

The person to Riko's right stood and made his way down the line a few people, tapped one girl on the shoulder, and switched places with her. He was sitting right in front of Neil, and one person to Thalia's right. She felt unsettled by this new arrangement, and wanted to crawl up into a ball in a corner somewhere. She recognised him though. Jean Moreau. Number Three of Riko's 'Perfect Court'. Riko and Kevin being numbers one and two, respectively.

"Ah, and this one must be the French bastard, correct?" Thalia said, looking directly into Jean's eyes. He narrowed them at her, no smile on his face, though Thalia grinned widely, and felt Neil dig his fingers into the material of her pants. She followed his silent instruction and dropped the smile.

Jean ignored her and turned to Neil. "You look familiar," he said. His accent already annoyed Thalia and she rolled her eyes.

"If you watched Kathy's show, you would have seen me there." Neil said in response. Thalia didn't know why, but maybe it was because Neil seemed inexplicably uncomfortable, and she felt the need to somehow protect him. So she took a page out of Andrew's book to apathetic protection and leaned forwards on her elbows.

"Yeah, you know," Thalia said, getting Jean's attention. "The one where Neil here cussed out your buddy Ratty Patty for being a bad 'brother' to Kevin." she put air quotation marks around the word brother because they weren't related. Never were, never would be. From what Thalia had heard and been told directly by Kevin himself, Riko had treated them all like shit, but Kevin and Jean the worst.

"Yes, you're right," Jean said, getting back on track. "What was your name again? Alex? Stefan? Chris?" Neil seemed to pale and Thalia took his hand that was under the table. It was shaking. There was no doubt Jean had gotten under his skin on purpose, likely on Riko's command. She shifted her eyes to the Japanese man and found him only smiling. 

"It's Neil," he managed eventually. Thalia squeezed his hand, knowing that something was wrong, and even saying that must have been hard. Jean hummed and tilted his head as if he were assessing Neil.

"You don't look like a Neil."

"And you don't look like a human, but here we are." Thalia responded, and didn't get Jean's attention with that one, but she could tell it was hard for him to keep his calm resolve with all the comments Thalia was throwing at him. He would break soon. Thalia knew it. 

"Blame my mother, she named me." Neil said to Jean's comment.

"How is she, by the way?" Riko asked. Thalia turned her head to Riko. There was obviously something he knew that nobody else did. It was clear by the way he and Jean were talking in code, sending out cryptic messages to Neil, and overall just trying to make Thalia's teammate snap.

"Don't antagonize my team, Riko," Dan cut in. "This isn't the place for it." Riko turned his gaze slowly on the woman and smiled.

"I was being polite. You haven't seen me antagonistic yet." Riko responded.

"Maybe not in person, but we've seen the after effects of it." Thalia added. She was quite sure none of the Ravens but Riko and Jean knew what the real cause of Kevin's injury was, and things that weren't common knowledge and could be used as blackmail were things that Thalia had figured out long ago were useful to her survival.