What if I ain't no violinist?

193. Twoset Traceurs

A/N: A traceur: A practitioner of parkour is called a traceur, with the feminine form being traceuse. They are nouns derived from the French verb tracer, which normally means "to trace", as in "tracing a path", in reference to drawing.

------------------------------------

"Eddy..!"

"Brett!! Hold on!!"

"I can't.. and if I fall my weight may dislodge your stake too..."

"F*ck Brett, don't you dare let go of me."

"Eddy, I am not gonna let you die with me if I can help it."

"F*ck Brett, don't you dare f*cking let go...!!"

"I have to."

Eddy's eyes widened. He stared into Brett's calm eyes. He was actually smiling at Eddy.

"I have to Eddy. I love you too much."

And Eddy suddenly felt no more weight on the end of his hand.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

"BRETT!!!"

Eddy shot his eyes open and jolted up in his bed.

"...Eddy? Eddy? Are you alright?"

Eddy was drenched in perspiration, gasping for air. Brett was outside Eddy's bedroom door, having heard the younger scream his name. Without waiting for an answer, Brett opened the door. He turned on the bedroom lights, walked straight to Eddy's bed, placed his knee on the mattress and leaned in to touch Eddy on the arm. Eddy jolted and turned to Brett. It appeared as if he came out of his trance and recognised his friend, flatmate and business partner. The next moment he burst into tears, much to the surprise of the older.

"Oh my god Eddy what the f*ck, what's wrong?!"

Eddy heaved as he looked up.

"I... I'm gonna be sick..."

Eddy got out of bed and made a dash to the en suite bathroom. Eddy didn't have time to shut the door behind him but Brett thought he would've heard Eddy retching anyway. Concerned, Brett pushed himself off the bed and stepped over to the bathroom.

"Eddy..!"

Again, Brett didn't wait for an answer and just went in. He turned on the bathroom lights and saw Eddy sitting on the bathroom floor, gasping for air as he reached up and flushed the toilet he had just thrown up into. Brett got down on his knees and gave Eddy a rub on his back in an attempt to comfort him.

"Did you eat something bad?"

Eddy shook his head.

"Yeah I didn't think so.. you have a stronger stomach than I do, so if it was the dinner, I'd be talking to the toilet first, wouldn't I."

Eddy heaved, then let out a wry grin.

Brett stood up and got him some water in the plastic cup that was kept in the bathroom to use for when Eddy brushed his teeth.

".. Here.. rinse your mouth out. Are you okay now Eddy? Do you know what caused it?"

Eddy nodded.

"I... I just had a fright.. bad dream."

Brett furrowed his brows.

"...F*ck, it must have been a pretty bad dream."

Eddy nodded.

"...F*ckin' worst..."

"Wanna talk about it?"

Eddy slowly opened his eyes and glanced towards Brett. He let out a wry smile with a sigh.

"...No.. it's just a dream.. it's fine."

Eddy rinsed his mouth out and slowly stood up. He actually looked significantly better. He may have been very shaken when he first woke up but he now knew for certain that it was just a dream, sure the worst of its kind, but still, just a dream.

"Brett.."

"Yeah?"

"Will you stay?"

"Of course"

There was not even a microsecond of hesitation.

"Thanks."

Eddy slept like a baby in Brett's arms. Occasionally fussing and clutching onto him for reassurance when Eddy's mind wandered back to the nightmare.

"Eddy, are you sure you're good to film?"

"Yeah, I slept well after we went back to bed. I hope you slept ok too?"

"Um, yeah I'm... alright."

Brett replied sleepily amidst a yawn.

"Geez, I think you're the one not ready to film."

"No, I'm fine. Just give me 5 more minutes of stretching."

"Okay, I'll be warming up."

Eddy turned on the camera that was set on a tripod and peered into it as he started to record himself.

"Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Twoset Traceurs, I'm Eddy and my parkour partner Brett is stretching in the background, you'll get to see him soon.  As you can see, it's a beautiful sunny day in Brissie today and I've just finished my stretches so I'm just gonna film some of my warm ups."

He gave a double thumbs up as he smiled and backed away from the camera. He then did an about-turn to face the equipment he was going to freerun for his warm up. He started to slowly jog around, checking out the equipment, jumping to estimate the height of a wall, leaping and grabbing a ledge to dangle to stretch and gauge the strength of his arms.

He then walked up to three pillars of different heights. He first stood in front of the smallest pillar to demonstrate a precision jump, by jumping and landing accurately with both feet together on the top of the pillar. He paused for a few seconds for the ease of editing, then moved onto the medium height pillar and did the same. He then suddenly squatted with his heels flat on the ground as he pointed to them. He planned to do a voice-over edit later to talk about the benefits of having flexible calves to make the landing easier thanks to the wide range of movement. It would also help soften the impact of landing from a jump but Eddy hadn't decided whether he would mention that in this particular segment.

Brett walked into the filming frame as he waved to the camera and Eddy stood up. Brett turned towards Eddy, mindful that their audience would not be able to lipread him and said;

"I'm glad you look like you're in good form, Eddy. You good to go?"

The camera captured Eddy's smile and nod.

To be continued...