Back on the Ground {Slytherin Team!}

[aliali]

There were still no matches, but that wasn't stopping the Slytherin team from cramming in as many practices as possible. In fact, they had more slots booked right now that all of the other houses put together.

There had been rumors going around that the first match was going to be another Gryffindor vs Slytherin one but none of the professors were willing to confirm it yet, and there were definitely no dates booked. Annoying? Yes. If they didn't start booking matches soon it was going to be dead of winter and snowing, and that wasn't anyone's favorite weather to play in.

But, today had just been another practice. The whole team had spent two grueling hours under a light drizzle of rain refining the same techniques they'd been practicing for the past month. It was clear that some people were starting to loose interest though - they really needed a proper match. And soon!

Regulus didn't care that much so long as he was out of the castle and flying, he was happy. Besides, this practice had been invigorating and exciting, and he'd finally managed to pull off a few of the trickier moves he'd been wanting to get the hang of. Now that practice was over and they were back on the ground he couldn't keep the grin off his face. It wasn't too often that he felt quite to light and carefree, but, today must be a lucky day.

Ahead of him, Reg saw some of his team mates already making their way towards the changing rooms to put their brooms away and he jogged to catch up. "Good practice, wasn't it?"

[/justify]

(ooc: a little awful I know but I don't know what's happening with this idea right now. Do what you will with it!)

[yumeko]

Yet again, practice had come and passed. Yumeko could hardly complain. Some would call it grueling, but not her. No, she enjoyed every last bit of it. Not only was she allowed to fly around and violently whack at inanimate objects in other people’s directions, but she was taken away from the dullness of schoolwork. Sitting through hours and hours of papers trying to make every last word perfect? Now that was grueling. This? This was freedom. Even the moist air causing her hair to stick to her cheeks felt comforting.

Granted, there was some wanting of an actual match, but practices were pleasant enough for her. For the moment her competitive nature was being kept at bay. She felt no dire urge to play in a real match, though coming out victorious was certainly an appealing thought.

Yume shook her head lightly and looked up from the ground she had been staring at so intently. Simply the thought of victory was causing her to surge with anxiety. Oh, how fun it would be! Oh, how jealous and spiteful the others would be in the wake of their triumph. How proud her father would be that she was on the winning team. They did, after all, have quite a team put together. Judging by their practice, no other house would have a chance.

A pleased smile had just begun to spread across her lips, having to be suppressed by her teeth biting down firmly on her bottom lip to keep her grin from getting out of hand, when her thoughts were interrupted by a team mate running up from behind her. Consequently, when her head turned to see who had addressed her, she might have been perceived as excited by the sudden conversation, or even he who struck it. In reality, she did not at first truly consider who was speaking at all. She had hardly even considered the words. It took a brief moment for her thoughts to catch up with the moment. To outsiders it would seem an imperceptible lapse of time, but to her it felt like an embarrassing eternity.

She realized now who was now walking next to her. He was younger than her, thought by how much she was uncertain. He was already so much taller than she. When one truly considered it, it was surprising that she, this tiny little woman, was a beater while he, the clear opposite, was a seeker. One might have thought the lighter and seemingly more agile player would take the position of seeker and the stronger that of the beater.

Her thoughts as she stared caused her smile to fade somewhat.”As good as any, I suppose,” she responded at last. Her faded smile made a reappearance, but in the form of something more quirky and sarcastic. ”There is always room for improvement, though. For example, if perhaps you lost weight you would get to the snitch all the quicker. Or perhaps the pressure is simply too heavy,” she teased. Naturally, she did not truly feel this way about the present team-mate. Truthfully, it mattered not who she was speaking to. She was in such a good mood that playful was a kneejerk mindset.

[aliali]

Reg looked at who it was that he was talking to for the first time. All he'd noticed before was that there was a team member ahead of him, but who it was hadn't been important. Now he looked. Yumeko. She was a 6th year if he remembered correctly. They didn't usually talk much, not even at practices, but it wasn't like they didn't get along or anything.

"But better than some. I swear if we'd had to practice those stupid signals anymore..." He didn't finish the sentence, but then, he didn't have an ending to it. If they had to practice the signals anymore he'd what? Not show up? Quit the team? Hardly! He'd still have been there regardless. Quidditch was pretty much the only thing he cared about right now.

At her comment about his weight his eyes shot her look at her, brows raising. He could see that she was clearly only joking but still, he wasn't going to let it slide. He threw a comment back at her, grin tugging at the corners of his mouth as he did. "Well maybe if you muscled up some you'd hit the bludger all the harder. Or would too much upper muscle mar your style too much?"

Reg had seen Yumeko around the common room outside of class hours and she always seemed to go for quite a stylish look, as if fashion was really important, and the whole 'pigs tails hair' (or whatever the word for it was, Reg really didn't pay attention when it came to the words girls used to describe their hair), and she wanted to look girly all the time.

[yumeko]

Yumeko shrugged at Regulus’ comment about practice, while wondering silently what he might have ended the sentence with as well. It seemed to her as if he might have ended it with some sort of physical threat… Like he would attack the coach or something nonsensical like that. But, in truth she really did not know him that well. For all she knew, he might have ended it with hugging kittens. Who knew?

What she did know about him now was that he was willing to play with her. He returned her snide comments about his weight with ones of his own. Some might find it strange how pleased she was to be insulted in this instance. Her sarcastic smirk shifted, forming the cutest smile she could muster. ”Jaa!” she peeped, not realizing she was mixing languages. ”Why, it certainly would!” she agreed. ”Muscles just would not look good on me… Besides, seeing little ol’ me, our opponents hardly expect me to be able to hit a bludger at all. So, when I send one hurling toward them it’s that much more of a surprise.”

The thought of her small female body being in such a position as Beater reminded her of something that seemed so obvious. Both the beaters on their team were women… It was not like Maddison was a husky woman either. She was rather small in stature as well. So, this burly man (or boy, considering his age) was essentially being guarded by two small women. The sheer amusement of it was colossal.

”How does it make you feel having two women protecting you?” she questioned with a light chuckle.

[aliali]

Reg raised an eyebrow at the strange word, a look of amusement crossing his face. It was clearly from her own language but it amused him none the less. She didn’t even seem to realize she’d said it as she continued the conversation in English.

Muscles just would not look good on me… Besides, seeing little ol’ me, our opponents hardly expect me to be able to hit a bludger at all. So, when I send one hurling toward them it’s that much more of a surprise.”

Reg scoffed. ”You call that hurling?” Reg couldn’t help but laugh. Yumeko was a good beater, there was no doubt about that, and the first time anyone played against her they were far too complacent. She could cause more damage than one would originally think, but, from what Reg had observes, her strength was more in the accuracy behind her shot, rather than the force. Which he definitely wasn’t complaining about. He’d choose an accurate bludger anyday. At least they’d hit the other team and not go astray and collide with one of their own. He remembered a fair few times that had happened with one of the other teams…

”How does it make you feel having two women protecting you?”

He looked at her and grinned. ”I’m a seeker. I’m hardly the one needing protected, am I?”

Well… okay, sure, if they were playing again the Ravenclaw team since their key tactic seemed to be to have one of their beaters launch ever bludger towards him, but against most of the other teams he was safe enough. Besides, his own flight plan left him well out of reach of an easy bludger, and more than capable of looking out for them on his

[yumeko]

Yumeko laughed in spite of herself. He had questioned her use of the word ‘hurl’, insinuating that she did not hit the ball all that hard. Sure, she was not the strongest beater a team could have, but she was fairly accurate and fast. She was fairly confident in her usefulness to the team. Were she to be replaced by a muscular man, she would surely be insulted.

“Sure you do. You’re irreplaceable,” she muttered quickly, not even realizing she was paying him a compliment when she had intended to continue their string of playful insults. “No matter how skilled you think you are, we still have to keep an eye out for you. You need more protecting than you think, Mister Black,” she teased.

They had arrived at the crossroads – the point at which the men and women split to go to their respective locker rooms. Yume came to a stop, for she was not yet ready to give up the opportunity for conversation that had been sprung upon her so suddenly. It was too bad he was so much younger than she, really. He played her game so well. Were the situation different, she might have considered it flirting.

“So, you think you can hurl a bludger better than I?” Hooking her arm around her broomstick, she crossed her arms and faced him with a smirk. “Or do you simply believe you’re so far from danger that beaters are irrelevant to a seeker?” She was nearly 100% sure he did not think this way, but testing his reactions was the whole point.

[aliali]

Finally someone who could take an insult and not actually be insulted. It was quite rare to find anyone who could fling comments back and just laugh it off. Most people liked the excuse to start firing hexes if nothing else.

"You almost insult our chasers saying that. We could win a game using just them. We've got a strong front. We just need to stop letting the other team score so much. Keeping isn't our teams strongest point these days."

Reg came to a stop as she did, and looked around. He didn't really want to go just yet... It wasn't too often he got to throw insults and joke on with people like this, and it made a nice change to wandering around on his own or doing work or something after a practice. Conversation every once in a while was a good thing.

Reg raised an eyebrow. "I could hurl it further. I don't doubt that." He did doubt that he'd be able to hurl it as accurately as she did, but he wasn't about to say that out loud. He saw Yukeko's smirk and narrowed his eyes, a smile tugging at his mouth as he did so. He knew this was all a game.

"Irrelevant to a degree. Most are more concerned with knocking chasers out of the game to worry about a measly little seeker." He said in a mocking tone. Seekers were in no way measly, not at all. But even with every team knowing that about their own, no one ever increased their defense against the seekers from the other teams. But when it came to a match, it was all about the goals.

The beaters were important though he wasn't about to admit that out loud. He smirked at Yume. "About that bludger hurling... care to test out the theory of who can hurl further?"

He'd do anything to keep on his broom and in the air and not have to go back to boring homework and school work.

[yumeko]

Interesting. Tell a man he’s irreplaceable and he actually argues that he isn’t? That was unexpected. Perhaps his ego was not as prevalent as she might have assumed. “You forget, sir, that catching the snitch is vital to ending a game. If we always relied on scoring enough of a heading in points to make the snitch irrelevant every game could go on for hours. If our keeping is so weak, maintaining a lead while waiting for their seeker to foolishly catch the snitch and bring a loss for their team just might be pointless. We are left to hope their seeker is not paying attention to the score.” During her speech, Yume waved her hand idly, then rested it on her hip.

Yumeko’s smug-ish expression from her speech broadened into a playful grin at his response to her call for action finally came. He was willing to challenge her. The girl leaned forward with her eyes narrowed until finally taking that step closer so that she nearly stood chest to chest – as if trying to seem tough. She stared up at him with a glare that, instead of malice, glittered with excitement. “Rather… who can hurl it better. What use is there in distance if you don’t hit a target?”

Her grip on her broom tightened and she leaned back, pretending to relax as she softened her grin to a smile. She lingered for a short moment, glanced toward the Quidditch pitch then back up at her team mate. “First off the broom,” she muttered before pushing off the ground with her broom quickly set beneath her. That was the only warning she gave before taking off for the pitch where their captain had not yet packed away all the gear.

[aliali]

"And the longer the games goes on for the less time we're expected to sit around inside and do work. And, after long games we always have some leeway if we miss work or we're late to a morning class or something like that. There are advantages, too." Reg looked to her and grinned. Games like that were tiring, sure, but fun. Or at least... fun for the winner. It also made a nice change to end a game feeling thoroughly fatigued and not just a little worn out. It was a sign that the body had been well worked and it was often better than ending and still having pent energy. "Besides, look at who the other team's seekers are. They're dimwits through and through - they wouldn't check the score."

So, he wasn't the only one who wasn't quite ready to pack his broom up and call it a day? Great! Reg would do anything to stay on the pitch a while longer and this time, it seemed, he didn't have to stay it alone.

She was clearly someone up for a challenge and that was clear in the way she approached him, excited glare not going unnoticed. He was sure the look in his eyes was one to match even as he put an amused look on his face as he looked down at her. "Further. Better. Faster..." He shrugged. "There's no time limit, is there?"

His eyes narrowed slightly as she casually leaned against the wall and he had the feeling that she was up to something. He wasn't wrong. In a matter of seconds she was on her broom and kicking off towards the pitch without much notice.

Grinning, Reg dived onto his and he was only a second or two behind her and they bee-lined for the pitch.

[yumeko]

Nothing could beat this rush. At least, nothing that her mind in its current state could fathom. The wind beat against her, fighting her momentum, but she did not let up. Her opponent was already fast on her tail. He had asked her something just before she took off, but she neither truly heard what he said nor cared to answer it just yet. To reduce her drag a little and increase her speed, Yume folded her legs behind her, crossing her feet over her broom and leaned forward. It afforded her a little bit of space between them, but she arrived at the pitch before a significant amount of room had been made.

Just as she neared the spot where their captain had been piling away all the supplies, Yumeko turned straight up then continued backward into a flip, sliding off of her broom and coming to a land flat on her feet in the sand. All in all, it likely looked more fantastic than it felt on her knees. She had done such a landing before, but not when going quite so fast. Despite the discomfort in her legs, she did not let her expressions falter for a moment. Instead, she smiled at their captain with a half-smirk. “We need to borrow the bludgers for a while. We’re going to…practice beating.”

”With the Seeker?” he question incredulously.

”The only part that matters is that we’re practicing, right? Look, we’ll take the gear back in, you can bugger off as you see fit.”

Though a little rude, Yume’s retort seemed to do the trick. Their captain shrugged, kicked the box back open and walked off to the changing rooms himself. Hearing that he wouldn’t have to do more work was apparently enough for him and it was certainly enough for her. With a spring in her step she walked over to the case and pulled out two of the bats. She tossed one over to Regulus then hesitated for a moment as she reached to unlock the bludgers. ”First one off their broom wins a sour taste of failure?” she chimed with a cheery tone.

[aliali]

Reg grinned as he flew out after Yumeko. He could see her folding her body closer to her broom to gain some distance on him, but he really didn’t care. All he wanted was the thrill of flying. Being the first out to the center was the last of his concerns and so he angled his broom straight up in the air, dashing skyward before leaning backwards, broom moving with him. On the plummet straight down he quickly picked up speed, and pulled level only inches from the ground and he let out a loud whoop of success. When he’d been younger and he tried to do that he’d bust his nose at least three times, but now? He had the move pretty much perfected. Now each time it did it he went that little bit faster or a little bit higher… or a little bit riskier… It was a thrill for him.

When he landed, he could see Yume already talking to the captain and it was quickly clear that he didn’t really care. He just shrugged and summoned his broom, making his way towards the changing rooms. No doubt another player who had homework on his mind. Urgh. Homework…
Well, that was definitely the last thing on Reg’s mind as he closed the distance to where Yume was standing with the supply box. A beater bat was thrown his way and he caught it reflexively, a grin spreading over his face. ”Fine. But first, to the hoops. We’ll use it as a starting point and we’ll see who can bat the hardest and furthest first, and do a little test on accuracy. Then? The game is on!” Despite the fact that he wasn’t a beater and she was, and there were very high chances that he would lose, he really couldn’t bring himself to care. Point was, he was playing quidditch and he’d found an excuse to stay on the pitch. Beyond that, he really didn’t care.