— trente ; thirty —

MINNESOTA STATE WAS OUTSIDE the driving limit the coach could take them, so the Ravens travelled by plane for the first time to an away game. Henri was pleased that they were missing classes for the entire day until he found out they had to leave Castle Evermore by 6AM to catch a flight at 10AM. They took the team coach to the airport, a huge black monstrosity with the silhouette of a raven printed on the side in red. Henri figured the Master just wanted to make the Ravens appear as imposing as possible and he'd certainly succeeded with their mode of transport, as if their cutthroat competitive players weren't bad enough.

Henri usually sat next to Soren on the coach, but Soren was grumpy because of the earlier than usual hour and as testy as he always got on game days, which didn't make for a good combination. Henri didn't want to deal with him while he was in a mood and left him to argue with Alixis about something trivial, slumping into the seat next to Loren, who looked far too bright eyed and awake for the early hour.

Loren smiled knowingly. "He's getting snappy again, huh?"

"Insufferable is the word you're looking for," Henri muttered sleepily. "Do you have headphones?"

"What for?"

"To drown out their voices." Henri yawned into his hand and glared down the coach, where Matthias and Benjamin had joined the pointless bickering. "It's an hour journey to the airport and I'm tired enough to try to catch up on sleep during it."

Henri only managed to doze in and out of sleep, even with Loren's music blocking out the other Ravens, because he was too wound up about the day. Not about the game — Xander must have told them he was playing today, but everyone was too sleepy and bleary-eyed to snap at him about it. He'd probably have to deal with it later in the locker room. He couldn't even think about the game or feel nervous for it because of the talkshow immediately afterwards. He was trying not to think about that, because he felt sick just at the thought of it. If he could just get through this game unscathed then he could worry about the shitshow that would be later.

The Ravenettes travelled to the airport separately but met up with the Ravens once they'd all gotten through security. A large group of cheerleaders and players wandered off to get something to drink, and Henri followed because he was in desperate need of a coffee. He hadn't managed to get much rest on the coach and needed a boost of caffeine to wake himself up. Zena was among the group, picking apart a blueberry muffin as Henri ordered his coffee.

"Interesting," she said, when he dumped two packets of sugar into his coffee. At his raised eyebrow, she added, "I always figured you were an unsweetened black coffee kind of guy."

"Really?" Henri stirred the hot drink with an amused look. "And where did you get that impression from?"

"It's just the vibe you have about you," Kit said, popping up out of nowhere with the usual opportune timing that came when Zena was involved. "If you were a drink, you'd be black coffee, Henri."

"And you'd be orange juice," Henri said.

Zena laughed, and Kit looked stricken. "Well, orange juice has lots of vitamin C," he mumbled, and Henri felt a little bad. Kit had been pining after Zena unnoticed by her for a while and Henri hadn't meant to pull the rug out from under him, even if the comment was harmless.

"Zena, don't you major in biological sciences?" Henri asked.

"Sure. Why?"

"So does Kit," he said, ignoring the startled look Kit shot him. "He missed a lecture the other day and was looking for someone who had notes he could borrow. Weren't you?"

"I don't think — ow," he complained, when Henri stepped on his foot, only for his eyes to suddenly widen in understanding. "I mean, uh, yeah. Yeah, I missed the lecture and I would really appreciate it if..."

"Yeah?" Zena looked amused as she nibbled on the corner of her muffin. "Who do you have?"

Henri took that as his cue to leave and found Soren just as he paid for his drink. "How kind of you, playing Cupid for your brother's ex-girlfriend," he commented, without even looking at Henri. "Was that your charity for the day?"

Henri rolled his eyes. "Nice to see you're still in a pissy mood."

"That has sugar in it, doesn't it?" Soren eyed the coffee cup Henri was holding. "I just had to stop that idiot Cedric ordering the drink with the highest calorie count on the menu, and I'm not dealing with you too."

"You know I don't touch coffee unless it has sugar in it. No," Henri frowned, stepping back when Soren reached out to grab the drink. "There's no way in hell I'm letting you dump this in the trash just because you think it's too unhealthy."

"It is too unhealthy."

"You're crazy," Henri said incredulously. "The power's gone to your head. You're captain, not dictator. Leave my coffee alone."

"Coffee has enough caffeine in it without sugar added. I'm not sitting next to you on the plane if you're hopped up on both."

"Hopped up," Henri echoed in disbelief. "I'm not five."

"Could have fooled me."

Henri couldn't believe how quickly his attitude could flip. He was lecturing Henri about coffee, of all things, as if he hadn't pinned him to the bed with hot kisses and sucked his dick just last night. Henri had half a mind to remind him of just that but their argument was attracting the attention of two toddlers from a family sitting nearby, both of them staring at him with wide fascinated eyes, and Henri didn't feel like corrupting their innocence. Luckily for him, distraction came in the form of Matthias ordering a large chocolate brownie.

"You wanna bug someone about calories?" Henri nodded to Matthias. "Go bite his head off instead."

Henri slunk off to drink his coffee in peace when Soren marched over to give Matthias hell, but they didn't have long to argue over the merits and cons of a brownie. They had to head for their gate not long later and boarded the plane. He had a window seat this time, as opposed to the aisle seat for his flight to America, but that was a hazy blur from months ago which he could barely remember. He hadn't exactly been in the right frame of mind to appreciate the novelty of the plane and all he remembered from that journey was feeling like death, like he was dying, like he should have died.

It wasn't a pleasant memory to dwell on and Henri dragged himself back to the present. He was glad he had a window seat this time, because even though the view of the runway wasn't particularly exciting he could only imagine how nice it would look when they were in the sky. Soren was sat on his right and Loren at the aisle, with the other Ravens scattered in groups around the plane. Henri glanced away from the window to see Loren flicking through the flight magazine and Soren staring out of the window with a white-knuckled grip. Henri recognised the tense set of his shoulders when he was on edge.

"You don't like flying," he guessed.

Soren flicked a look at him. "Does anyone?"

"I don't know," Henri said, pressing a hand against the cool glass of the window. "I think I could, but I've only ever been on one plane before."

Loren looked surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah. From France to America."

"You never went on holidays abroad?" she asked.

"We didn't do holidays," Henri shrugged, aware of Soren's gaze on him, studying him. "I didn't even realise holidays were a thing until I was eleven or twelve. I guess it never occurred to me to ask why."

"That's awful," Loren said, looking distraught enough on his behalf that he felt awkward. "I mean, holidays weren't high up on our list of priorities either...but we still went on them, sometimes."

"It's fine," Henri said. "I really don't care about holidays."

"And you don't care about birthdays either." Loren looked appalled. "Did you even believe in Santa?"

"Santa? Who's that? Kidding," he grinned, at her expression. "My parents were straight up with me about Christmas. Santa Claus doesn't exist but you can have one present if you want so you don't complain. I was a kid so I was willing to take a present from anyone, I didn't care who."

Henri felt a lump rising in his throat just talking about his parents, as if everything was normal and they were still alive, so he was grateful when the pilot announced they would begin take-off. He turned to stare out of the window, partly to hide his face and partly because he wanted to see as they rose into the clouds. He expected to feel fear at how alarmingly high they rose but all he felt was a strange kind of satisfaction, seeing the country rolled out before him like that. Nothing could be important when he was this irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Soren seemed to feel enough fear for both of them and took it out as anger on Lucas, who had the misfortune of sitting behind Soren and accidentally kicking his seat once.

The flight was considerably shorter than the one from France to America, but he used the two hours to catch up on the restless sleep he'd had the night before. He somehow managed to sleep through the entire flight and it was only the ding of the pilot announcing touchdown that woke him up. He blinked sleepily and it took him a moment to realise his warm pillow was, in fact, Soren's shoulder. Henri lifted his head with a yawn and Soren looked up at him from the book he was reading.

"About time," he said.

"If you really had a problem with it, you would have pushed me off hours ago."

Soren's only response was to turn his attention back to his book and Henri allowed himself a smug smile.

They arrived at the stadium an hour before first serve. Even though it was smaller than Castle Evermore, Henri could still hear the thunder of hundreds of footsteps and voices as the Ravens were ushered to their locker room. All the other stadiums they'd been to seemed smaller than Edgar Allan's and Henri had come to the conclusion that no game would feel or sound as powerful as they did at Castle Evermore. The Minnesota Bearcats had the same colours as the Ravens, but they'd gone for a cheerier colour scheme of bright red with black accents. When both teams flooded out onto inner court, to the excited cheers of the crowd, the Bearcats were wearing the inverse of the Ravens — black print on red jerseys.

Soren gave them the line-up for the evening and when KJ's name didn't appear, it didn't take him long to understand he was the one who had been replaced. The look he shot Henri was murderous but there was little he could do now, when they were seconds from stepping on court and the Master was watching. Henri figured he'd end up shoved down the toilet or in a locker after the game, but KJ's vengeance was the least of his worries. The Bearcats were probably the best team they'd faced so far, and while it still posed little threat to the Ravens' formidable force, it wasn't a team they could brush past without effort.

However, the Bearcats brought a stronger game to court than anyone had ever seen before and played with a cohesive sense of teamwork that could come close to rivalling the Ravens. They'd improved over summer, with a stronger line-up, and Henri wasn't sure he even wanted to go on court against this team. He wasn't willing to risk his presence messing things up but the Master didn't give him a choice. After half-time, Henri followed Soren back on court with the score at 3-4 — they were winning, but not by a big enough margin for any of them to be happy about it.

Soren grabbed the back of Henri's jersey before he could take his position at half court and yanked him to a stop. "Watch your mark," he warned. "Killian has a wicked temper and earned the undesirable title of the most fouls racked up last season."

Henri was impressed despite himself. "Most fouls?" he wondered, with an appraising glance towards the Bearcats dealer. He had a couple of inches on Henri but they had similar slim builds. "That's no mean feat, considering the kind of game Exy is."

"My point is, don't be your usual antagonising self and refrain from rude comments," Soren said flatly.

Henri grinned. "No promises."

Soren gave the back of his helmet a light pop with the racquet to make it clear he wasn't unimpressed by his backchat before taking his place at far court. As Henri took his own place, he learn Killian was in fact a woman. He didn't know why he was surprised — despite the Ravens only hiring three, some of the fiercest people he knew were women.

"They're sending on the little French boy again?" she sneered, as the referees locked the doors. "Pathetic. The Ravens really have lost it."

Henri would be the first to fire back when insulted, but he knew firsthand the best way to piss off a mouthy player was to ignore their taunts. Seeing that they couldn't get to someone only made them more frustrated while Henri remained level-headed, considering he couldn't give two shits what these people thought of him. It was overall a win-win situation on his half despite the fact he couldn't tear into them like he really wanted to.

"Too embarrassed to even answer me? Should have known all the talk around you was bullshit. You don't deserve to play Class I, forget with the Ravens." Killian waited a beat and took a more personal turn in her attacks when he didn't reply. "Jean must have wanted to kill himself when he saw the rat he was stuck with as a brother. You've never met him because he must have known you were scum even at birth."

Henri curled his fingers tighter around the racquet, hard enough he felt the bite of plastic even through his gloves, and had to bite his tongue to stop from speaking. That comment wouldn't have bothered him as much if he wasn't going to have to face Jean in a few hours.

"But that's nothing on the rumours surrounding your parents," Killian said, lowering her voice as the referee approached with the ball to play. Henri tensed at the nasty tone to her words. "Is is true your mother was a strung out whore and you were just the product of an unsavoury mistake?"

Henri didn't remember dropping his racquet but then his hands were curled in the front of Killian's jersey as he shoved her forward, fury a hot fire in his veins, and hissed, "Don't you fucking — "

The referee yanked him back before he could punch her lights out, helmet or not, and gave him a scathing warning to behave himself or leave the court. Henri barely heard what he said, fuming as he glared at Killian. She just smirked at having managed to get such a heated response. He didn't have time to dwell on it because the referee was handing him the ball for first serve and he had to get his head in the game. With some difficulty, he tried to push all his anger down and focus it into thrashing Killian and the rest of the Bearcats.

The game was violent from the get-go and Henri soon understood where Killian's most-foul ranking came from. Despite not being particularly large or strong, she played with a dangerous aggression and slammed Henri countless times in checks that toed the line of legality. If he hadn't spend an entire summer dealing with the same treatment from Jude, he might not have survived for as long as he did, but as it was he knew how to handle rough playing. Henri had no idea how she'd made it so far in the game without a yellow card. It was exhausting and bruising, not to mention the snide words Killian got in between plays, but Henri was reinvigorated by the goals Soren was bagging to widen the point gap.

"Oops," Henri drawled, when the Ravens scored again and the crowd went wild. "What was that about trash?That point was your fault, you know."

"How the fuck was it my fault?" Killian snarled, taking the bait. "That dumbass backliner didn't keep on your fucking striker."

Nice, Henri thought, ragging on your own teammates in front of the other team. He wasn't particularly fond of the vast majority of the Ravens but he wasn't stupid enough to let the teams they were against see that rift. For all their flaws, no one was better at showing a united front even when everything was falling apart behind the scenes.

"You let me steal possession for the third time," Henri shrugged, as if he couldn't care less. Which wasn't strictly true — he hadn't forgotten her earlier comment and was willing to say anything to piss her off. "And you're so slow I could run laps around you in my sleep. I almost feel like you're trying to play badly, because I don't see how anyone could actually be so shit."

Henri stepped deftly out of the way when she made as if to hit him and angry pounding on the glass from her coach, watching from inner court, forced her to fall back. He knew as well as the rest of them that Killian would be off the court if she tried anything else. "You fucking cunt," she growled, and Henri laughed at the anger in her voice, just to annoy her further. "I'm going to kill you — "

"I'd like to see you try," Henri said over his shoulder. "You'd have to catch me first, which seems fairly impossible considering you can't even get the ball from me."

He knew he was doing exactly what Soren told him not to do, waving a red flag at the already enraged bull, but he didn't care. The bitch had brought it on herself when he dragged his parents into this — this was an Exy court, and that his personal life was available to her to use against him pissed him off beyond belief. He almost wanted to blame Jean, for drawing so much attention to himself before Henri was even in the picture, but he knew that wasn't fair. This was the Moriyamas fault. Riko and his stupid perfect court.

Henri didn't back down with the mocking taunts and he should have seen what was coming. They were in the final quarter and the Raven had managed to pull ahead to a safe point the Bearcats couldn't come back from. The Bearcats goalie slammed the ball down the court but Xander managed to snatch it out of the air a second before his striker, taking only a couple of steps before passing down to Matthias with hairpin precision. Matthias had passed back to Xander in less than a second, who fired at the wall in a rebound Henri knew immediately was intended for him.

Killian was on his heels as he raced for it but Henri was faster and snagged it out of the air. He saw Soren from the corner of his eye, the positioning that put him in perfect line with the goal, when Killian suddenly checked him against the wall with the full force of her body. Somehow, even through the pain flaring through his battered body, he managed to hold on to the ball and twisted at the last second to pass to Soren. He barely had a chance to see Soren receive the ball and race for the goal before Killian slammed her racquet into Henri's gut, managing to catch him just below his ribs where the gear was weakest.

"Hope that fucking hurt," Killian hissed, over the loud buzzing that indicated another goal for the Ravens had been scored, and Henri knew that it wasn't an accident she'd hit him where the gear wouldn't protect him.

Henri slumped to his knees and couldn't hold back all of a groan. He felt like his stomach had been smashed into his lungs and even as the initial burst of pain faded, he couldn't breath because the racquet had managed to wind him. He yanked off his helmet, almost certain he was going to throw up, but he needed to get air into his aching lungs first. Finally, he managed to suck in a breath and dropped forward with his hands against the floor, keeping his mouth clamped shut to avoid his dinner coming back up. Puking in the middle of an Exy game, with cameras and a playback screen to catch the whole thing, was something he'd never live down.

"Fuck you," Henri gasped, when he was certain he could breathe again and wouldn't throw up, levelling a furious look up at Killian. "You're so appalling the only thing you can do is try to cripple players with fouls, but guess what? You're still fucking shit."

Killian's eyes blazed and she raised her racquet, free to beat the shit out of his Henri while he was down, but a figure stepped between them before she could. "Don't," Soren said, in a dangerously low voice. "Don't fucking touch him."

Henri's eyes widened at the ice in his tone but didn't get a chance to hear Killian's response, because Xander and Matthias had reached them, with a couple of the referees following. Henri seriously hoped they were here to give Killian the red card she deserved. With the way she hit him, a strike with racquets not made for that purpose, she could have seriously injured him. As it was, he still felt pretty sore and it hadn't been a fun experience even if his stomach was still in one piece.

"Are you okay, Henri?" Xander asked with a frown.

Henri probed the aching area with careful fingers, breathing slowly, and nodded when he didn't feel anything broken or torn. "Fine. Doesn't mean it didn't hurt," he muttered, throwing a glare at Killian.

She was too busy getting hell from the referees for such a dangerous play to see it and Henri got some satisfaction when she was thrown off court with a red card. He clambered to his feet and turned to Soren, only to see he was already being subjected to a fierce scowl from him.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Soren snapped. "Is there a reason you do exactly what I tell you not to, or are you just that exceptionally stupid?"

"A death wish, I think you called it."

"You're not funny."

"She started it," Henri said, aware of how childish that sounded. "And are you seriously going to try and blame me for the fact she just rammed a racquet into my stomach?"

"It was pretty illegal," Matthias pointed out.

"And painful," Henri said, peeved. "You should thank me for getting us a free penalty shot."

"Not that we need it." Matthias glanced up at the scoreboard, declaring 4-7 in the Ravens favour. "We've got this one in the bag."

Soren glared at Henri. "Go get it checked."

"What? But there's only fifteen minutes of the game left," Henri frowned. "I can get it checked after and besides, I feel fine now."

"Did I make it sound like a choice? Go and get it checked."

"But it doesn't even — "

Soren jabbed him lightly in the stomach with his racquet and Henri couldn't help but wince. "Don't lie to me."

"What about the Master?"

"If he has an issue with my decision, he can take it up with me," Soren said, irritated. "So shut up and get off the court. KJ will play in your place."

Henri didn't want to leave now, not when he didn't know when he'd next be playing, but Soren's expression assured him he wasn't in the mood to argue this point any further and the game would have to resume.

"Fine," Henri huffed, and looked at Soren before he left. "Make sure you don't miss the penalty."

Soren raised an eyebrow. "When have I ever missed?"