Nice Roommates

Both Rowan and Eric understood Director Freeman's line of thought. If he was able to use one piece of information that was good enough to overwhelm the bad news of Eric getting injured, then it would be for the best.

Lena was an expert at worrying, and Eric frequently received lots of calls through the weeks from his mother, with her wanting to know the state of his health, how work was, and if he was doing anything dangerous.

After a bit more chatting, Director Freeman finally left the two brothers to their devices. It was at that time the the other occupants of the ward made their way over. Marcel was in the lead, followed by another red haired young man that was supported by a pair of crutches, and a petite blond girl that had a bandage tied around her head. Rowan presumed them to be Eric's teammates.

"I guess this is the famous Rowan Heart that Marcel refused to stop talking about all night." The petite blond girl smiled warmly and introduced herself. "I'm Star, you can call me big sis, though." She winked at Rowan.

"Don't bug him too much, Star." The red haired guy said with a wide grin. "Hey, Row. You can call me Zeke." He propped himself up on one crutch and extended a hand to Rowan.

"Hello, it's nice to meet all of you." Rowan shook Zeke's hand with a small smile of his own. Then he turned to face Marcel.

"I'm sorry for being so rude last night. I was just too worried about my brother." He bowed his head slightly to show his sincerity.

"That's fine." Marcel laughed. "You were actually more composed than I thought you would be. I was expecting you to have been bawling at a certain point." He said with a mischievous smile. It was then that Rowan realized that the young man had also been partially in shock, so he was not in the right mindset. Marcel was most likely a trouble maker.

Just as Rowan wanted to speak up, he felt Eric's large hand settle onto his head, and he kept quiet.

"You guys should shut up and stop bothering my brother." Eric grunted and glared at his annoying friends.

"Pff, joykill." Star rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Anyway, you guys should go back to your beds and rest. You've met my brother already." Eric sighed.

"What? Are you going to start another training regime for us if we don't?" Zeke grinned widely.

"As a matter of fact, yes. I should be back up on my feet in two days, when I am, we will start our intensive training so that we can get back in shape as soon as possible." Eric said with a heavy tone of seriousness in his voice, making everyone except for Rowan freeze.

"Wait, that's not fair!" Marcel protested. He turned to Rowan with his eyes shining. He thought that if he could get Rowan on his side, maybe Rowan could talk to Eric on their behalf. "Rowan, please help us explain to your brother that we are too injured to start training in just two days. Not even a week would be enough!"

Rowan stared blankly at Marcel for a couple of seconds.

"He won't help you." Eric grinned from behind Rowan.

"What? How could you say that?! Why won't you help us, Rowan?" Star butted in, staring at Rowan with her large, round eyes, pretending to be cute, so that she could woo him.

"Well, I support my brother's thoughts, so I don't see a need to go against them." Rowan shrugged as he averted his gaze.

His words left the other three people slack jawed, while Eric was left chuckling. He already knew what Rowan was like, so he was not surprised.

"Argh! Alright, I give up." Marcel threw his hands up in the air, while Zeke just let his head hang sadly. Star just pouted as if she was a little kid that was just denied a cup of ice cream.

"Good, rest up, you have two days to get into shape and then we'll start our training. The same goes for me." Eric nodded at them as they returned to their beds.

Just then, Rowan's comm began to flash. He jumped up with surprise, but quickly regained his composure as he tapped on the comm.

"Rowan!" It was Robin. The yellow haired boy looked worried as his holographic image stared hard at Rowan. Behind him, Rowan could see both Elijah and Connor watching with concerned looks on their faces.

"Oh, Robin. Good morning." Rowan sighed.

"Good morning to you too, you dumbass! Do you know how worried we were?!" Robin continued to shower Rowan with harassments for a couple more minutes before finally calming down.

"Haha, sorry. I just really needed to go at that moment. But all is well now." Rowan rubbed the back of his neck, feeling embarrassed at how he had fled and left his roommates standing in the middle of the hallway like that.

"Yeah? What happened last night? You ran to the medical wing. Did you see someone you know?" Connor asked from the back.

"Mm, my brother was the one who was wheeled in. He's doing fine now, though." Rowan explained.

"Oh, that explains it!" Rowan almost imagined a light bulb coming alive atop Elijah's head as the black haired boy exclaimed.

"How is he? Your brother?" A fourth voice suddenly came from the side, and Maxwell joined in on the call. Rowan's eyes shot wide open when he saw that. He had totally forgotten about training.

"Oh, crap! I forgot about training. I'm so sorry." He quickly got to apologizing.

"It's alright. I can excuse you this one time, but that does not mean you can skip today's training completely. Be back after the first break. You can stop by the mess hall to get something to eat before you follow your roommates and head back to the training hall from yesterday." Maxwell told him firmly. He was surely not going to give Rowan any special treatment. This was already enough.

"Thank you." Rowan nodded his head, and Maxwell stepped away, leaving his three roommates as the only ones n the call.

"Alright, I'll see you guys in the mess hall." Rowan smiled at his roommates.

"Alright, see you then." They replied, and the holograph fizzled out.

"You've got some pretty nice roommates." Eric suddenly spoke from his laying position on the bed. "You can go ahead and freshen up before you meet up with them. We'll chat later." He smiled and patted Rowan's head.

"Alright, see you later, Eric. Rest well." Rowan nodded and left the ward after bidding goodbye to Eric's teammates.