— six ; six —

HENRI'S FIRST WEEK WITH the Ravens passed, much to his surprise, relatively uneventfully.

And by that, he meant none of them had tried to pull anything over his eyes. He spent the seven days watching his back, waiting for snakes in his bed or poison in his coffee, but nothing of the sort came. There weren't even small things like stolen clothes or locking him out. Despite this lack of intervention, Henri wasn't stupid enough to think they'd forgotten about the promises they'd made and came to the unfriendly conclusion that they were simply biding their time.

That being said, while none of them had tried to kill him no one was welcoming or friendly. The majority of the team spoke to him during practice when they had no choice and ignored him the rest of the time, which was perfect. It was all he wanted. It was the seven who'd decided to make his life hell that were openly hostile. They'd unnecessarily jostle him and shoulder past him, check him more than the game called for, and took so much abuse out on his borrowed racquet that it splintered. Tetsuji hit him for that, despite the fact that Henri had nothing to do with it, and threatened a worse punishment if he lost another racquet.

The worst of the disagreements were verbal. Henri could have taken the majority of them in a fight, if he just used the martial arts he knew, but he didn't want more questions as to where and why he'd learnt to defend himself like that. So he stuck with barbed insults and snide words in retaliation to their torment, which he learnt was particularly effective against KJ, Benjamin and Alixis. The others were quick to snap back rude words but those three were guaranteed to start up a physical confrontation when he managed to take things to a personal level.

Soren stayed out of the petty and childish bullying, which had less to do with Henri's ability to play and more to do with him as a person, but that didn't mean that he approved of Henri at all. He snapped out harsh criticisms and improvements, and refrained from ever making a positive comment. Henri took to taking his silence towards him as the only compliment he would ever be receiving, as it meant he hadn't messed up enough for Soren to say anything. Henri spent pretty much every one of his waking hours with Soren, much to both of their consternation, but he could at least take small mercy in the fact Soren was only interested in his potential as a player and not destroying him regardless.

"Why do you care so much?" Henri retorted one evening, when they were alone in their bedroom. Soren was chewing him out for a mistake he'd made at practice, rambling on about the consequences and such. "It has nothing to do with you."

"You don't understand."

"No, I don't," Henri said, annoyed. "Care to explain or do I just guess why you're such an asshole?"

Soren flicked a finger between them. "I told you, we've been paired up. That means in the Master's eyes, we are one and the same. Your failure is mine and my success is yours."

"And vice versa," Henri reminded him.

"Whatever." Soren rolled his eyes. "What I am saying is, I cannot afford to have a useless know nothing as a partner because it will reflect badly on me. As captain, I have to deal with enough shit as it is and don't have time for someone else dragging me down."

"Alixis," Henri guessed, and took Soren's silence as confirmation.

There were rocky relationships within the team, some getting along less well than others, and Alixis and Soren were one example. The older girl believed she deserved the title of captain and took to questioning every command Soren gave, at once undermining him in front of his team and wasting everyone's time at practice. She was the unestablished leader of the upperclassmen wanting to kill Henri and it was clear she wanted to steal the position from Soren, who was unmoving and unsympathetic to her wishes. They clashed heads often on and off court.

On the evening of the day which marked his first week with the Ravens, Henri stood under the shower and let the hot water slowly run cold. It had gotten to the point he was so closely packed in with the Ravens, with no escape from them as he couldn't even leave Castle Evermore without Soren or a reason, that the bathroom was the only place he could escape their presence for some breathing room. Practice today had been particularly brutal. He was managing to shoot goals and actually bag points. The positive was Soren backed off a little but the negative was the others were just more aggressive that he was managing to improve.

"I'm sorry," he told the bathroom, in French. He didn't know if he was talking to his parents or himself, but it was still the truth.

He left the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his hips and dragging fingers through his tangled wet hair, which was falling in his eyes now. He needed a trim but he didn't trust himself or anyone here to sort it out. Soren was lying on his bed, a book in his hand that Henri didn't care enough to know what the title was. While Henri's shelves were practically empty, Soren's were crammed with all kinds of books from Exy tactics to classics. When he wasn't obsessing over Exy or being insufferable, his favourite past time seemed to be reading. Henri didn't understand. He thought books was boring.

He was about to grab some clean clothes were his gaze caught on the phone sitting on his bedside table. His phone, which he still had yet to use. He'd tried to leave it in Soren's car but Soren had dropped it on his bedside table the next day, warning him not to mess around. Henri hesitated before reaching out to pick it up and turn it over in his hands. He expected the contacts to be empty, so he was unimpressed to see Soren had taken the liberty of installing every single one of the Ravens numbers, including Tetsuji's. Henri was absently scrolling through them, ticking off all the numbers he'd never call, when he saw a name that made his heart stop.

He twisted to stare at Soren, only to see he was already being watched. Henri was too stunned to wonder why Soren had been looking at him. "What," he began, and tried again. "Why is his number in here?"

Henri didn't use his name, but it took Soren only a second to understand who he was referring to. "He is your brother. It only made sense."

"No," Henri said, throwing the phone on the bed. It skidded across the cover and bounced off the floor. "I'm not — I'm never calling him. I'm not doing that."

"Don't." Soren looked bored and was already lowering his gaze to his book, but not before giving Henri a short appraising look. "See if I care. The number is there; whether you use it or not is up to you."

Even an hour later, Henri was still shaken about it and couldn't stop looking at the phone he refused to touch, thinking about that number. How easily it would be to dial. One button, and his brother would be on the other line. The thought make him sick with dread and apprehension and something else he couldn't quite pinpoint. Henri knew, realistically, when the season began they would end up playing against the Trojans and he'd have to face Jean then. But he was too cowardly to drag that meeting forward before he had to. Jean still didn't know he existed.

Henri needed a distraction and he wasn't going out there, not where the other Ravens were waiting. That left only Soren. "Do you have any siblings?" Henri blurted out, not sure where the question came from.

Soren gave him a funny look. "Why?"

"Is it a crime to be curious now?"

"No," Soren said slowly, as if anticipating a trick behind the innocent question. "No siblings. But I grew up with my cousin, and she was pretty much like a sister to me."

Henri was willing to take the additional comment, even if Soren was just humouring his attempt at a conversation. "What's her name?"

"Loren."

"Oh," Henri chuckled, earning yet another strange look from Soren. "Loren and Soren. I get it. I bet your parents planned that. What kind of name is Soren, anyway?"

Soren seemed to understand this wouldn't end with a few words, folded the corner of his book and set it down on his bed. The cover looked plain and dull — pretty much like the reader, then.

"You dog ear your pages?" Henri asked in surprise. "You seem like a bookmark kind of person."

Soren studied him. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Henri said, raising his shoulders in an exaggerated shrug of innocence when Soren looked unconvinced. "I'm bored, okay? And you said it yourself, we're going to be stuck together whether we like it or not. Your success is mine and all that shit."

Soren considered that, and just when Henri thought he'd turn his attention back to his book, he looked at Henri with a sigh. "Stern," he said, waving a hand at Henri's puzzled look. "That's what my name means."

Henri snorted. "Was that supposed to be ironic or prophetic?"

"A name is a name," Soren said. "Whatever meaning they hold is irrelevant beyond what the person makes of the name."

"Sure. You just don't want to admit yours might have some truth to it."

Soren's lips twitched and he couldn't hide all of a small smile. Henri felt that same irrational sense of triumph that he had finally managed to break through at the sight of it. It didn't matter what Soren thought of him, that much was obvious, but he couldn't explain away the spark of heat in his chest seeing Soren's rare but genuine smile. Soren seemed to realise his slip, because he scowled and snatched his book back up.

"Why are you wasting your time?" he demanded. "You will never improve if you sit around like this. Go memorise the line-ups of every team we will be facing this year."

Henri sighed and dropped back on his bed. "And to think, I almost forgot why I hate you."

"That's your problem."

"Yeah, don't worry. It won't happen again."

Despite what Soren had ordered him to do, Henri didn't want anything else to do with Exy today. He felt like he was living and breathing the stupid sport, and his initial excitement seeing a Class I team play quickly faded to being absolutely fed up with it. They still had two months before the season began and he wasn't wasting his precious free time memorising line-ups this early in summer. He settled on an early night, flicking off the light and leaving Soren with his bedside lamp to read by, curling up under the covers and willing himself to sleep.

Rough hands shook Henri awake what felt like minutes later and his instinctive exclamation was cut off by the cloth stuffed into his mouth, with enough force that he choked. His disorientated brain could do nothing but panic as hands yanked him out of bed and another pair held his arms behind his back in an iron grip which he couldn't wrench out of. He tried to shout around the gag in his mouth, but the words were muffled and then something scratchy was pulled over his eyes and tied so tightly his head ached. A blindfold. The shadows of his room darkened to absolute black and he couldn't see at all.

I wasn't good enough, he thought, his body seizing up with terror as he was shoved forward, forced to walk in darkness. He could imagine the cold press of a gun against his temple. Tetsuji had enough. Ichirou will kill me now.

"Are you excited?" a low voice growled in his ear. Over the blood rushing past his ears, Henri heard the familiarity in the tone. "Because I sure as hell am. Excited to watch you fucking break."

"Shut the fuck up, Benji," a feminine voice hissed. Aria. "You'll end up waking the whole place and then we'll have hell to deal with. Wait to threaten him when we're outside."

Henri was still being pushed forward to walk to god knows where, but now that he was listening properly, he could identify the owners of the hushed voices. The upperclassmen. The rush of relief that hit him was as unexpected as it was strong. He'd spent the entire week dreading the moment they'd make their move but knowing it wasn't Ichirou, preparing to kill him, he was finding it difficult to muster up any fear. Whatever they were going to do to him, it would never be as bad as the fate waiting for him if the Moriyamas decided to take him back.

He cursed when they reached the stairs, almost tripping over his own feet thanks to the lack of warning he had been given. All he got in return was a hard prod in the back and hissed, "Hurry the fuck up, shortass." He couldn't even hold a hand against the wall to guide himself, seeing as someone was still holding his wrists tightly, so he walked blindly and prayed he wouldn't fall on his face. This entire situation was embarrassing enough as it was.

He felt when they were outside, the cool breeze of the night running fingers through his hair and brushing across his skin. He had no idea what time it was but it must have been early in the morning, for the hot sun that beat down during the summer days had disappeared. Henri stumbled as someone shoved him forward, and then he was in the backseat of a car, feeling a body pressed up against him. He recoiled when someone touched his face, but there was no scratch or pain. They simply brushed his cheek in a strangely affectionate gesture.

"He is pretty cute, isn't he?" Henri couldn't be sure, but he thought it was Matthias. He was one of the only ones who spoke without revulsion when speaking about Henri. "I bet he'll be really good looking when he's older."

"Keep it in your pants," Alixis ordered, accompanied by the rumble of an engine roaring to life. Henri felt the car when it began moving. "Do whatever the hell you want to him when we're finished with him."

"If there's even anything left of him for you to fool around with," Jude said snidely.

Henri's hands were free now that they were in the car, but he didn't want to risk raising them to pull the gag out of his mouth. Even if he could speak, he wouldn't be getting the answers he wanted. He ran through all the places they might be taking him and came up blank. During his stay at Evermore, he had only left once, and that was his first night off campus with Soren to buy supplies. He had no idea what any part of Edgar Allan or the city looked like. They could be dumping him in a ditch and leaving him to rot, for all he knew.

When the car was stopped at their destination, Henri was led out and was subject to delightful insults courtesy of KJ and Benjamin, pretty much clarifying this wouldn't have a nice ending for him. He couldn't even return the retorts because they'd gagged him, which pissed him off more than anything about this situation. The most he could get out of it was managing to rile up at least one them before they fucked him over. He settled with gritting his teeth and planning their gruesome deaths in his head.

The building he was guided into was warm and had a significant smell, one that was familiar but he couldn't quite pinpoint. "Careful," Alixis said, irritated. "In and out, okay? I don't want to get in shit if we get caught in here."

"Just dump him in," Jude said.

Henri stiffened at the words and struggled against the hands pinning his arms to his side for the first time, earning him a knock to the head. "Stop squirming, you brat," KJ snapped. "Or I'll knock you unconscious before we throw you down."

"Consider this your first trial," Alixis said, and Henri heard the air quotes in the last word. "If you make it back in one piece before practice this morning? You pass. If you don't...well, let's just say the consequences are always worse. Good luck."

KJ whispered, "I hope you fail," before giving him a strong push forward.

Henri threw his arms out to catch himself against the ground and panicked when he felt nothing, falling blindly through the air before crashing into cold water. His shock lasted for all of a second before he instinctively kicked, not able to discern which way was up and unable to see what was around him. He scrabbled ineffectually at the blindfold around his eyes but the knots were too intricate and he was fast running out of oxygen if he didn't get to the top. He kicked, forcing himself to think around his building panic, and pushed upwards. Gravity remained and Henri knew if he kept going in that direction, he had to break the surface eventually.

He emerged out of the water just as his lungs were about to give in and gulped in air, kicking his arms and legs to hold himself afloat as he struggled to catch his breath. He still couldn't see but he knew what that scent was now — chlorine. He was in a swimming pool, but he had no idea which way to swim to get to the edge or how deep it was. He had to rely on his legs to keep him out of the water and his fingers struggled with the blindfold, attempting to unpick the stupid clump of knots it had been tied with. He didn't have the breath for it but he cursed the upperclassmen to their grave as he finally worked the blindfold off.

He saw glittering blue-green water and wide windows as his eyes adjusted, and swum to the side of the pool. He grabbed the tiled floor with wet fingers and managed to haul himself out of the water, collapsing on the poolside with a wet thud. He was soaked and shivering, but he barely felt the cold through the hot rage burning through his body. They could have fucking killed him. What if he couldn't swim? What if he hadn't managed to get the blindfold off and had drowned, with no direction to swim? He was so angry he wanted to punch something, and settled for kicking at the lapping water.

He knew the Ravens hated him, but did they seriously want him dead? This was his "trial", which he was supposed to clear if he wanted to survive. "Fuck your trial," he snarled out loud. "Fuck all of you."

Did Soren know about this? In fact, had he been one of the Ravens involved in dragging him out of his bed in the middle of the night? Henri didn't see how he could have slept through this. He seethed at the thought he had pitched a friendly truce in the form of conversation, only for Soren to sit there knowing his teammates planned on throwing Henri blind into a swimming pool, in the middle of fucking nowhere. He hated them all. He always had, but he had never been more certain of his hatred for people before.

Well, fuck them. He wasn't letting them win that easily. Morning practice started at 6AM, and he had to get back by then if he wanted to pass their stupid little test. A glance at the large clock built into the wall told him it was just past 3AM. He had three hours, which seemed like plenty of time, if not for the fact Henri didn't have a clue where he was or how far he was from Castle Evermore. The drive had felt like about fifteen minutes, but that meant nothing. Even if Henri jogged back, he had no direction he could take and no phone to check maps. There was nothing much he could so he just had to start walking.

Once he had finally located the door, he was fucking delighted to find it locked. Of course it was. He didn't care about CCTV or vandalism at this point. He found a heavy weight in one of the storage cupboards, meant to be thrown to the bottom of a pool for a swimmer to retrieve, and smashed it against the padlock until it broke. He shoved open the glass doors and stepped out into the night, which felt chilly on Henri's wet clothes. The streets were deserted as he expected with only streetlights to illuminate his path.

Henri looked both ways down the street, seeing nothing familiar or to indicate the direction he should go. He cursed them all to hell and took a random path, hoping he'd eventually find some clue as to what he was supposed to do.