an unkindness of ravens

six

— 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.