"Feeling better?"
Joachim opened his eyes abruptly. His gaze darted to Aaron, who stood in front of the entrance with a bowl. Steam rose from the bowl, which meant that the contents must still be very hot. He quickly sat up and put the corners of his mouth into an awkward smile.
"Ehh, yes. Sleeping helped a little bit...," Joachim gave an embarrassed laugh. In truth, he didn't sleep, he was still too ashamed of the incident earlier.
"That's good," Aaron smiled as he bent down to hand him the bowl. Joachim accepted it gratefully. A pleasant smell rose from the soup in it, it had a greenish color.
"Don't worry, Kay has set up a separate pot of soup for you," Aaron admitted with a laugh as he noticed Joachim's hesitance
Carefully, Joachim began to scoop the soup spoon by spoon into his mouth. Aaron scrutinized him briefly before continuing.
"Kay said you should sleep here tonight. It's more comfortable than on the bus."
At that instant, Joachim choked, and fell into a violent coughing fit. As he struggled for air, Aaron patted his back in concern. It took quite a while for Joachim to calm down again. Finally Aaron gave him a look that meant everything okay again? Whereupon Joachim nodded.
How can a person be so friendly and caring?
"No, no, everything's fine. I'll just sleep on the bus, I don't want to cause Mr. Nowak any trouble," said Joachim hastily, his voice still hoarse from coughing.
"Pfff," Aaron laughed softly, "So throwing up doesn't count as an inconvenience?" he teased Joachim.
The latter blushed, bowing his head, pretending to concentrate on eating the soup.
"I think you should accept the offer, after all, you have to drive a long time tomorrow," Aaron smiled at the blushing Joachim, "Besides, Kay's not so bad, he's pretty stressed right now, that's all."
Joachim looked at him questioningly, "Stressed?"
This time Aaron nodded, a little lost in thought, he replied, "It won't be long before the Olympic Games. But the evening before we were supposed to leave, our bus driver died. It was very difficult to find a replacement so quickly, Kay had to make use of a few of his connections, until finally Frank's father came to the rescue. And now you're here."
This statement alarmed Joachim quite a bit. The previous bus driver was dead? Shaken, he turned to Aaron and asked, "How did my predecessor die?"
This awoke Aaron from his thoughts. He fixed his eyes on Joachim's face. His smile seemed rather awkward now.
A shiver ran down Joachim's back. Whatever answer would come now, it could not be good. A picture of his Soul-Realm Card rushed through his head, severed legs and innards. Suddenly, swallowing seemed so difficult as he anxiously awaited Aaron's answer.
"Aaron! Get ready for bed and go to sleep, I will not allow you to participate in the Olympics in less than top form!"
An all too familiar angry voice interrupted their conversation, in turn destroying the tense atmosphere.
Aaron exchanged a quick glance with Joachim before he grabbed the now empty bowl and stood up. Shortly before he left the tent, however, he suddenly turned to Joachim, and with a smile he whispered: "Good night and sweet dreams!"
With that, Aaron left. Joachim continued to stare a little dazed at the entrance to the tent. How could he sleep peacefully now?!
"Hm? What are you staring at?"
He hadn't even noticed Kay entering the tent, he quickly looked away. In his field of vision he could barely catch a trace of the new shoes on Kay Nowak's feet and immediately a guilty conscience rose in him.
Kay walked past him, busily spreading out another one of those longish bags: "Do you think you'll be able to drive on tomorrow?"
It was a simple question, but Joachim felt as if he there was an invisible pressure pressing down on him. Hastily, he replied, "Y-yes, I feel much better already. I can sleep on the bus too..."
"Nonsense, you'll sleep here tonight. Do you think I want another incident? Something like, professional athletes killed in an accident?" Kay retorted sharply. The shaking out of the wrapping of the longish bag almost sounded like a whip in Joachim's ears and he did not dare to talk back at Kay again.
"Are you still not getting ready?!" Joachim was startled and jumped up, he ran to the bus to find his luggage.
Finally he stood a little helpless in front of the trunk of the vehicle. Even though such a thorough camp had already been set up, there were still many bags in the trunk, making it impossible to find his via elimination process.
Leaning forward to search the bags, Joachim reached for one of them.
"What are you doing?"
Joachim's upper body shot up, with a loud 'Pang!' he hit his head. A pitiful whimper left his lips, while he reached for the back of his head in fright.
"Is everything alright?!"
Suddenly a warm hand lay on his shoulder, Joachim spun around and stared into the worried face of an unknown athlete.
This surprised Joachim. With tears of pain in his eyes, he forced himself to a quick reply: "I'm fine, I was just looking for my luggage."
The athlete exhaled a sigh of relief. Grinning, he pointed to a blue and white bag: "This is yours. I guess you're having a pretty bad day."
Joachim grabbed the bag and nodded, still rubbing the back of his head.
That done, he turned back to the athlete to thank him.
The unknown athlete was a little smaller than Aaron and Kay, but still taller than Joachim. His hair was red-orange and flowed untamed down his back to a little below his chest. His eyes were blue, his nose large and his chin pronounced. Strong muscles were visible under his tanktop, and his arms were also sporting strong biceps. All in all, he looked like the Combat Card-Players from his world.
"No problem, my name is Steffen by the way. We haven't hadd the opportunity to introduced ourselves yet," Steffen held his hand out to Joachim with a grin.
Joachim also introduced himself and took Steffen's hand. The latter had an extremely firm handshake.
"I heard that you are also interested in the theoretical part of sports?" In Steffen's eyes was an excited sparkle, Joachim nodded back with an awkward smile.
This seemed to have been the sign he had been waiting for, with the greatest enthusiasm he almost shouted: "That's great! If you like, I can tell you a lot of things on the road tomorrow, I know a lot more theory than Aaron! It will be fun, you'll see. And don't worry, of course I'll help you with navigating too!" The joy was evident in Steffen's face, he didn't even wait for Joachim's answer before he turned around and disappeared into a tent with one last happy wave and grin.
Overwhelmed, Joachim stayed behind at the bus.
…
He really had a bad day.