Sidestory:
Patching Up And Breaking Down
by Angie, Lauren, Matt and Tami
"I can't believe you performed so absolutely miserably!" The badger's normally shrill voice had risen to new and ear-splitting heights as a result of his deeply-felt outrage. "Three of you! Against three of them and one but a child? And they still managed to render two of you unconcious and escape? Cowards! Children! Why I should have..."
"Ay." Adam sighed, long-suffering, and turned to press a fresh, clean cloth to the side of Rafe's mouth before moving to hand Willow an ice pack. "Just relax, okay? I'm sure there was a good reason for it all." He glanced back at Rafe. "Right?"
"Yeah," Rafe grunted. He looked absolutely terrible; Hodr had managed to make mincemeat out of him, utterly and efficiently. He had the beginnings of two smashing black eyes and both his lips were split, grazes and bruises beginning on his face and his arms. There was a sticky patch in his hair where he had a head wound. "I was facing the redheaded she-bitch from hell and all I had for backup was a small woman and Sailor Whiny Bambino."
Adam winced at that and returned to Rafe's side, efficiently tearing up a strip of gauze to make bandages. "I'm so sorry, mon ami," he murmured. "Matty and I just should have come with you lot." Then he paused and squinted. "Redhead? Merde, Hodr?" he asked. "And the other was Heimdall, right? Who was the kid?"
"Don't know. Ask Bambino. She was the one who stood there and talked to the little shit when I was having my face ground into the pavement by Whoredr." This was obviously a bitter sticking point.
"His name is Balder Knight," Willow replied. "He can't be more than ten."
She was shocked to wake up with her scarf. It could only mean that he had left it with her. She couldn't figure out if she should be angry against him or not, now. "I wasn't about to beat up a child, enemy or not," she continued. "Say what you want, but I'm no monster."
A derisive snort exploded from Ay and he halted in his pacing to glare maliciously up at the dark-haired girl. "No,of course not. You're a soft-brained idiot child of an inbred herd of goats! You have the survival instinct of a wildebeest!" Spinning as neatly as a stout, bow-legged badger could, Ay turned to face the as-yet-quiet fourth human in the room. "Mathilde, Seth, don't ever behave like that one," he snapped. "Gods damn you all, how did the proud Kemets come to be so weakling to the Noord?"
"Cowardice, inaction, laziness, sentimentality, and stupidity?" Mathilde suggested, placing her index finger on her chin thoughtfully. "Misplaced pacifism in the face of manipulative enemy tactics?" She paused, then beamed. "Or just pure idiocy and incompetence. Your choice."
There was a long pause as Ay turned beady dark eyes upwards; the look of sudden and blissful adoration was positively terrifying. "Or all of the above?"
The look on Willow's face was ice cold, with contempt written over every inch of her being. "Well, I'll ignore the opinions of the newcomer," Willow said, "given the fact that I don't like to pick a fight against the socially handicapped."
She turned to Ay next. "As for your 'opinions', there's a third set of options to consider," she said. "Mainly that I wasn't going to behave like an animal, something you seem to have more experience at given your current life. And I'm afraid I don't have that much practice at harming children. Maybe I should ask you for pointers, given your previous life, and involvement with Tutankhamen."
She looked away from the sociopathic dustmop and decided to get a little more serious. �However, I think it went wrong at the start of this patrol," she said. "There was no confidence in the leadership especially since said leadership had nothing but contempt for those under him. Said leadership also charged into the fight because Hodr made an obvious reference to his 'skirt'. We were divided at the beginning"
"Amica, war is not something you avoid; it's something you run from." Mathilde smiled again. "And we may put up with you for now, but mutiny is rarely regarded as a good trait for any army. Remember the first world war."
"Fuck," Rafe noted blearily, stealing an icepack and pressing it desperately to one eye. "I want to slap that bitch too, now. They're using big words to make up for their lack of breasts, right?" Squinting, his eyeline turned to Mathilde's generous chest. "Oh, wait."
Adam pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead and sighed explosively. "Rafe," he muttered, "Just shut the hell up, huh? You've got a head wound so I'm going to put that comment down to dead brain cells." Drawing his hand away again, he looked over at Willow and Mathilde tiredly. "Point taken, Matty. Point taken, Willow. The fact of it all is, though, Willow, that you and Rafe got knocked out tonight and poor Nyssa was alone against three Noord. All three of you came this close," his strong hand indicated the tiniest of spaces using his fingers, "to not coming back here at all. I don't know why they didn't... Well, I don't care why. I just know they didn't but, Ogoun help me, you are never going to be stuck like that again. Don't care if you have to run or hide or whatever. You are not going to let it get that close again. Ever."
Willow sighed. "You're right, Adam," she said tiredly. "It'll never happen again." She pushed herself up from her seat, and limped out a bit. "Matty's right," she continued. "Regarding war, mutiny and cowardice. So I'll take the advice she has so freely given me. I'll take my 'prepubescent pacifistic ideals', and go home."
She took her scarf, bunched it up into a ball, and rudely threw it into the face of Ay.
"I quit."
And with that, she took to the door, and limped out. Not looking back.
Silence hovered as the door slammed and then, voice shrill and vicious, Ay yelled after the departed senshi, "And may the gods spit on you! Drown in the Nile, you little she-cow!"
Even as his guardian was delightedly casting insults, Adam made for the door, hand out. His intentions were all to clear - go after the young girl and stop her.
Rafe immediately jumped to his feet, hand on Adam's arm, eyes dark. "Don't," he growled. "She's throwing one of those damn teen temper tantrums like the bambino she is, Le Blanc. I used to do that all the time. Of course, my papa walloped me, but you're apparently not allowed to do that any more. She'll come back. If she doesn't, whose loss? That other little kid, she had real spunk, at least we're not using her. And we still have that great gangling cow over there."
Mathilde beamed at Rafe. "Feeling emasculated? Do. I'm told it never passes." She turned to glance to Adam. "He's right, though. Let her have her tantrum. If she's right and they don't go after her, then she'll feel justified and I won't have to listen to her whiny voice. If she's wrong and they go after her, she'll die and I can feel validated. Either way, coddling her is just going to make it worse."
"I almost like this one," the dark-haired potter grunted. "I could fall in love with her, if she put a bag over her head and never spoke."
Adam looked from one friend to the other and a faint, almost reluctant smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. That was the closest he'd ever heard Rafe complimenting someone since he had known him; maybe it was the head wound. But Willow had still left... The dark-haired young man sighed and nodded slowly. "Okay, I'll let her go tonight," he agreed. "She's just going home. She'll be fine but... I'll call her in a few days, see if she's cooled down. She might just be scared, hm?"
"Hmph. Maybe. Fuck knows what she's scared about." The potter winced, going boneless back on his couch, pressing the icepack harder to his head. "Dio mio, my head hurts. I'm not going to be able to work." He used the word like it was 'breathe' or 'move'.
Immediately solicitous again, Adam returned to Rafe's side and shifted his hand from the ice pack, rearranging it to rest lightly. "Don't press so hard," he scolded. "And don't fall asleep." Then he looked over his shoulder at Mathilde. "You don't mind hanging around a bit longer, right? I just want to make sure he's not going to keel over on us."
Mathilde shrugged. "I can stay for a while longer," she replied.
"Oh, hallelujah," the potter snorted. "Her face is really what I want to see before I die."
Mathilde smiled insincerely and smacked him casually across the head. "He's so cute," she commented. "Can we throw him into the ocean or would that poison the fish?"
"I'm really anti-pollution," Adam replied gently. "And watch his head, huh?" Neatly, he readjusted Rafe's positioning on the couch, checking over his wounds once more. "We don't know how many brain cells he lost in this fight."
"Hate both you bitches. Hmph. Serves you right if I die."
"Oh, don't talk like that, Rafe." Adam turned away to squeeze out a rag and fetch a new bandage. "You know we'd miss you. Even Ay would pine, I bet."
"If you're referring to the heathen custom of a burial in a pine box," Ay snorted, "I might dance on it. Does that suffice?"
"It would if you wanted to experience footie from the ball's point of view, mon ami," his charge cut in mildly. "Be nice to the trauma patient, huh?"
Rafe flopped back his head. "I swear I'm not doing any of this senshi shit for ages. Talking badgers give me headaches."
"I'm surprised you can even formulate sentences, heathen," Ay muttered. "Small wonder anyone intelligent speaking gives you pain." With an indignant little shudder, fur raising all over his body, the badger turned to Adam and Mathilde. "Well, I don't believe he's going to be dying on us soon. More's the pity. Adam, you can now take Miss Bernadone and I home. We're through here."
"I can find my own way home," Mathilde said, rolling her eyes. She was actually planning on some coffee and possibly some alcohol before she called it a night, and her drinking partners never included men, even if they were badgers. "Besides, you'd better make sure that guy doesn't try to drink bleach or something, if you insist on keeping him alive. Personally, though, I'd try some copper sulfate in his coffee. Quick and painful, best of both worlds." She beamed. "Bye now," she said, waggling her fingers at them, and strode out the door.
"... She's a bitch," Rafe said, with grudging admiration. "Is she your girlfriend, Le Blanc? You're so on the bottom."
Adam merely shot the Italian a mildly reproachful look and then moved to tidy up the bandages.
"What does that mean? That means I'm right, doesn't it? Or does it mean you're on top and use a riding crop on her?"
"Rafe, mon ami, you've got a nasty bump on your head," the younger man said softly. Turning around again, he moved to perch on the arm of the couch near Rafe. "How're you feeling, huh?"
"Does that mean I can say whatever I want and blame it on the concussion? Hmph. Not too shabby." Rafe batted long, sooty eyelashes at Adam. "Take me, you big hunk of American man, you. Take me now."
With a faint smile, Adam waited patiently until the badger's stubby legs took him out of earshot. Then he grinned, full-on charm, at Rafe. "Y'know," he began mildly, "It'd serve you right if I did give you a big kiss. It'd buy me some peace at least, huh?" Chuckling, he leaned down to lift the cloth on Rafe's forehead and gently probe the wound.
"... well, yes, because I'm just not gay." It was just sounding pathetic now, even to Rafe's own ears. "So not gay. I'm the least gay ever. See Bernadone? She's gayer than I am. And neither are you."
Opting to play dumb, the younger man smiled, replacing the cloth on his friend's head before standing to retrieve an Ace bandage from his duffel bag on the floor. "Neither am I what?"
"Gay."
"Oh, right." Sitting down, he began wrapping his knee up, completely unperturbed. "You've got a good radar on you, mon ami?" he teased.
"Hell, yeah. I can tell when somebody's gay at a hundred paces. They'll be right in front of me, and I'll be 'hmph', and I'll be able to tell which way they go."
"Y'know, Fabrizio," Adam began. He paused then and looked up after fixing the bandage in place with the metal clip, an amused smile on his mouth but his hazel eyes measuring. "You're also kinda full of shit."
Rafe elegantly gave Adam the finger.
Adam burst out laughing and shook his head. "Oh, yeah, you're getting back to normal." Abruptly, though, he sobered. However, he didn't say anything and merely stretched out in the chair, absently flexing his wrapped knee.
Rafe flopped back on the couch again, hands behind his head, a grumpy look coming over his face. "... I'm not sorry for what I did to the annoying brat, Le Blanc. I'm sorry if I scared the other little girl, but not for the brat."
Adam's mouth tightened slightly and he stared down at his knee. "You don't have to like her, Rafe, but I don't want you doing anything like that ever again, okay?" he murmured, voice low and firm. "I know she's not easy to get on with but, well, come on. She's just a kid and here she is, expected to... Kill people. It's a lot to take in... I'll talk to her later this week. No matter what, she has to look out for herself now and she has to understand that letting the rest of you down isn't... Well, it's not good at all. She can't do that."
The potter hmphed. He didn't like getting told off by Adam. It rankled. "... don't see why we can't just dropkick her into a dumpster."
"She might ask the same of you, y'know." He shot Rafe a sudden smile, sun breaking through clouds. "Though I bet she'd be more eloquent about it."
"Hmph." Rafe finally cracked a smirk.
"There we go. Feeling better or do I have to try for more jokes?"
"I'm all -right-. You can sod off now if you want."
"If you're sure... I really should get home. It's late." Standing, Adam quickly gathered his odds and ends and tossed them in his bag. Slinging it over his shoulder, he turned to study the man on the couch. "Sure you don't need anything before I grab Ay and head out?"
"No. I can sit here and die in peace."
"Don't even joke about that."
"Yes, Madre. Go away."
Adam chuckled. "Okay, I get the point. I'll give you a call tomorrow to check on you and... Rafe? Take care of yourself, okay?" With a small wave then, the younger man disappeared, whistling as he went for his badger.
Rafe sighed. It was very hard being Adam's friend. He found himself not being pissed with him, which wasn't normal at all, since Rafe's normal setting was 'pissed'. He even took the talking-to gracefully. Well, sort of gracefully.
The potter slumped back again, his head throbbing. Shit. He wasn't going to do that again any time soon.