I'm with You
{Mari’s self indugent Puyo shipping: AppleTea.}
It was a Starship Tetra crew visit day; the ship had stopped by Suzuran town a few days ago. The first day, they didn’t talked much to people outside the crew, being too busy with checking on the ship and planning the days out. The other days had been a lot more social, however. Ringo and Tee enjoyed the chance of seeing each other again, while the remaining crew members loved to relax in Suzuran a little and hang out with people here or between each other.
It would be a temporary rest, however, as the crew really needed to visit Ex as soon as possible. But the Keeper had been informed about their small vacation and told them to take their time. This seemed to calm down the pressure they had upon their heads to get out as soon as possible.
Or at least, to everybody except the captain. Tee had been just was serious as ever, despite insisting that he was enjoying the relaxing day.
Now it was the fifth day the crew has been staying over. Tee mentioned he wanted to leave to check on Ex soon, he would just wait until Ai and Risukuma were done with an upgrade in the S.S. Tetra they had been planning together. This would take at most, 2 more days.
Like last time, Ringo wanted to get a few gifts for Tee before he leaves. She had picked up some new candies for him and his crew to try out, as well some fruits. And lots of apples. He had mentioned something about starting to like apples, so she made sure to save up a lot of apples just for him. With two big, slightly heavy bags in each hand, Ringo left her home to reach the roof of Suzuran High, where the ship had landed again. Tee commented that he tried to find a better point to place the ship, but in the end, the roof of the school was just too good to stay on.
Most of the crew was away, doing their own stuff. The only ones still in the roof with the spaceship were Jay and Elle, who had started a prank of dropping eggs on innocent people who approached the school; and Ai and Risukuma, who were working in the ship upgrade.
“Heya!” Ringo greeted the two animal scientists. She kinda wanted to scold Jay and Elle about their pranking, especially because she was sure in some point they would hit a teacher with those, but she feared the possibility of them throwing the eggs at her too. She decided to just ignore that. She’s here for Tee, anyways. “How’s the ship thingy going?”
“Oh, it’s doing just fine, Ringo!” Risukuma beamed with pride. His science knowledge was being really useful for the ship additions, plus he was learning a lot from Ai too. It was a win-win situation. “Ai explained that there was an issue with an engine, which caused the ship to have problems with landing properly. But with those new parts we added, it should be working better now! I still might need to stay over this afternoon to check the ship’s software, though.”
“Good, good.” Ringo nodded as she took a quick look to the ship itself. She couldn’t really tell the difference, but if Risukuma got it covered, she believes in him. “Sorry to change the subject but… is Tee around?”
“Tee? I’m not sure.” Risukuma answered, then turned his head to a window of the spaceship where he yelled. “Hey Ai! Is Tee nearby? Ringo wants to talk to him!”
There was a short silence before the engineer of the Treta showed up from this same window, adjusting his glasses. “Hello, Ringo. I’m afraid the captain isn’t here now. Do you wish to leave those bags here for him to see later?”
Ringo frowned. “I don’t know, I wanted to talk to him too. Do you know where did he went to?”
Now the one frowning was Ai. He placed a hand on his chin and sighed. “I do not. I’m unsure if I should mention this but… the captain had an argument with miss Ess earlier today. While this isn’t something new, he had been acting weird ever since.”
“Acting weird?” Ringo repeated, blinking. With like a flash, she recalled the times she talked to Tee recently. He was a little stressed out due to captain duties, issues with the ship, the need to visit Ex and goodness knows what else. However, he insisted that he was fine, emotionally wise.
And considering how he usually is quite stoic and serious, Ringo believed it. But how honest was Tee being when he said that? “....You know what, Ai? I take your offer to leave this stuff here. I just recalled I need to check something important.”
“Suit yourself.” Ai stretched out a hand to grab a bag while Risukuma picked the other bag. With a quick farewell to Ringo, Ai opened a door to allow Risukuma in, so they could find a place to put the bags.
Now that both her hands were free, Ringo turned around and ran off from the roof. She didn’t knew where the captain was, but she felt in her guts that she had to find him. She also made sure to leave before the creepy twins had the idea of giving her an egg shower.
--
Ringo had no idea where Tee could be, at all. There wasn’t many places he knew in this town, and it was very unlikely he would go too far by himself. She had found O before, but the tiny messenger had been communicating with Ex all day and didn’t know his captain’s whereabouts either.
She had checked near her house, the park; asked Maguro and anyone else from the crew she could find. There was still no clue of where Tee was. Ringo was frustrated. Having no evidence to where to do now, she decided to take a small break to rest a little, before looking more.
Once again, she was near her school. Almost an hour had passed, some of the Tetra crew had gone back to the ship. There wasn’t any more falling eggs from the roof, meaning that either somebody finally stopped Jay and Elle, or they just ran out of eggs. Whatever happened, Ringo didn’t mind. It was safe to walk near her school without a surprise egg into her head, that was what was important. There were still a lot eggshells and destroyed egg yolks, though.
With a sigh, Ringo sat down in a bench. This is a mess. She had to find Tee, but there was no sign where he was now. All clues pointed out that something was wrong, but he didn’t wanted to be found. This made her even more worried.
“Darn Tee. Where are you?” Ringo asked to herself, leaning down on the bench and staring at the sky. She could just hear the silence now. The school was open, yes, but most students and teachers were in class now. The place was silent. She could just hear the birds, sometimes a few noises from the people in the roof and…
Uh. There was a familiar voice. A whisper. A whimper.
She tilted her head and looked to a corner of her school. The walls covered a small dark alley. Ringo didn’t went here much, but she had seen Maguro sneaking in there to play games with other classmates before, as well some sneaky students hiding to escape from class. Could it be…
Raising up from her spot, Ringo tiptoed to enter the alley. The first thing that caught her attention was that, after a few careful steps, she found a familiar disc. Her focus was in the disc for just a few seconds, as she quickly saw the owner of this said object. His back and head rested against a wall, his arms hugging his knees. She could be wrong, since the alley was a little dark, but his eyes seemed red.
“.....Tee?” Ringo called, softly. The last thing she wanted now was to scare him off by accident.
With a gasp, Tee quickly ran a hand over his eyes and forced himself to smile as he turned around to look at her. “R-Ringo… I didn’t see you…. Hey.”
Ringo huffed and placed a hand on her waist. “Now, come on. You don’t seem fine. Are you upset?”
He flinched, his mouth open as if he wanted to speak more, but the words were hard to come out. The tears just didn’t stop either, so he wiped out his eyes again as he tried to say something. “M...Me? No, I was just.. I needed some time alone, but I guess I should go back to the Tetra now.”
But before he could even get up, Ringo knelt down near him and held him by the shoulders, forcing Tee to look at her. “Tee, no. I’m worried about you. Ai said you argued with Ess and that you were acting weird.Did she hurt your feelings? I’m not gonna tell her, it’s just between you and me.”
Tee seemed hesitant at first, so Ringo let go of his shoulders. He was silent, but still sitting down while facing her instead of trying to leave. That at least was good. With a short sigh and a sniffle, he placed his hands on his lap. “No, it’s not Ess. She did said some stuff, but I’m used to it. It was just.. something else to the pile, you get me?”
“Ah, yes. You were already feeling bad but Ess was the last straw that broke down everything?” Ringo risked. As a student and daughter of two sellers, she knew well what stress could do to people. Plus, the reminder of how Tee was acting all those days. She only wished she had noticed this sooner.
Tee was a little surprised at how fast she was concluded this, and with a small nod, he confirmed it. “As the captain, I’m used with stress and dealing with a lot of stuff. Don’t think I hide my feelings, though. I have O as a great listener in the ship, he has given me a lot of good advice before…”
A small smile appeared, along with a few more tears. All this time he was speaking, he still cried a little, but it wasn’t stopping him from talking, even if he had to sniffle every now and then. “But... . Things have been hard. The ship issues, we got late to visit Ex…. O felt so bad for letting Ex down, I didn’t had the heart to tell him I also felt awful. Or anyone, for that matter.”
“Aw, Tee.” Ringo offered out a hug with her arms, but he refused with a headshake. Sighing, she placed her hands down too. “It’s not your or O’s faults, though. Sometimes machines just… break. At least, that’s the feeling I get from Risukuma’s inventions or Maguro’s video games.”
He gave out a slight chuckle at this comment, but it didn’t cheered him up for long. “But I’m the captain, Ringo. If something happens to the ship, or heaven forbid, my crew….. I just… I feel like I could have done something or…..” Silence, his head looking down to the floor.
“You can’t blame yourself for everything that happens. Heck, like that other time. You could never imagine Puyos would fall from the sky. You didn’t even knew what a Puyo was!” Ringo tried to comfort once again. But this time there was no replies. Tee just started the floor, tears falling from his cheeks and hitting his lap. It hurt Ringo to see him like that, especially since he had trouble to tell how he felt. She isn’t O, nor she had any idea what O said or did to make Tee feel comfortable to talk.
Sighing, feeling a bit disappointed that she wasn’t doing well but still determined, Ringo placed a hand on his own hand. She noticed his eyes shifting from the floor to his lap; then his head tilting to face her.
“.....I guess a hug sounds nice now.” Tee whispered, his voice heavy.
Smiling gently, Ringo pulled him closer to a hug, which was quickly returned. Tee snuggled closer to her, sobbing softly on her shoulder. In response, one of her hands rubbed small circles on his back, while she looked down to him. His face was visible, but his eyes were closed as the tears fell from his eyes. It got her sweater wet, but she didn’t mind. She would stay with him like that for as long as he needed.
A few minutes had passed. Tee’s sobbing slowly turned turned quiet sniffles. Ringo didn’t move much apart from rubbing his back or turning her head around sometimes to see if somebody was coming. She wondered if the crew or Risukuma were looking for them. Even so, she felt like Tee should have some time to calm down before facing his crew again, especially Ess.
In some point, Ringo looked down to his face again and noticed that Tee, with his eyes closed and a fist close to his cheek, also had a smile on his face. She gently ran a hand on his hair, trying to see if there was any more tears. His face was red from all the crying, but besides that, he seemed fine now.
“Is that a smile I see?” Ringo asked, her voice teasing him a little. Hearing him giggle in response made her laugh softly too. “How do you feel?”
“I guess I feel better. Though my head hurts a little.” Tee replied, opening his eyes. They were also red, so Ringo imagined his headache was from the crying.
Slowly, Tee pulled out from the hug and held his head with a hand, lowly whispering something to himself. Ringo got up to her feet and offered him a hand to help him up, which he accepted after he grabbed his disc again.
“I think I really should get back to the Tetra now. My crew must be worried about me.” Tee muttered out, his eyes looking down with a bit of shame. “T… Thanks so much, though.”
“Hey, no hurry. I could get you some water for your headache. And maybe some ice cream too, it would help with cheering up.” Ringo explained calmly. Besides, she assumed Tee wouldn’t like if his crew saw him with a red face like that. He’d need to do a lot of explaining, which he didn’t knew if he wanted to do for Ess or the twins.
With a lack of response from Tee, Ringo pulled out her cellphone from her pocket. This made him look up to her in a small surprise. “I got Risukuma’s number. He said he’d stay over the entire afternoon in the ship, I can call him over and ask him to tell your crewmates that you’re okay. Does that sounds good?”
Tee quietly looked to the phone, then just nodded. “Do you… Do you know how to make my face less red too?” He inquired, a hand on his cheek. He couldn’t even think of looking himself in a mirror now.
Ringo nodded as well, taking him by the hand and dragging him out of the alley. “Don’t you worry about that. Now let’s just focus on relaxing, okay?”
“That sounds good.” Tee responded, following Ringo out of the alley as she dialed Risukuma’s number. After this, they would be going to Ringo’s house and have the rest of the afternoon to relax, not caring about any captain duty for one day.