A.D.
October 22, 2007. 12:01 p.m. I’m in Sparring Room B once again with Vivian.
“Are you sure you want to have another go?” I stretch my legs and finish fastening my helmet. “The win ratio’s already 0 to 20, that’s better than most people I spar with.” My bruise has calmed down quite a bit. It only hurts when I really press into it. I’ve also worked up a good sweat and can smell it marinating against my skin under the protective gear. Vivian on the other hand looks worse than she did yesterday.
“Excuse you.” Vivian straps on her shin guards. “It’s 1 to 20. Where’d you learn to count?” Her hair’s going in every direction and covering an eye, she’s covered in a layer of sweat and dirt, and I can see her once green bruises turn a deep purple in several places. The one eye that’s exposed is already swelling purple. I’m amazed she can even see me.
“Very funny.” I stretch my arms and touch my toes. “I’m not going to go easy on you.”
“Were you going easy on me before?” That look returns to Vivian’s eyes.
“What? Hell no. That’s the most disrespectful thing you could do to an opponent.”
“Then there should be no issue.” Vivian finishes putting her gear on and extends her fist into the air in front of me. “C’mon. Let’s get this started.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” I bump her fist and get into my usual stance. “Let’s go.” I’m not going to try and goad her into a first strike this time. It’s surprise time. I slide forward, wind up a punch, and hit her right in the center of the stomach. Before her hands can wrap around my arm, I pivot to her right to continue the assault.
Just as I start my pivot, Vivian swings her right elbow out and crashes it against the side of my helmet. I’m knocked off balance and back off before she can get another counter in.
“Nuh uh uh.” Vivian grins and wags her finger. “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t get so cocky.” I throw out a fireball and strafe around her. I’m still a little dazed from the elbow, but fine otherwise. Was that just a lucky guess?
Vivian sidesteps the fireball to my right and closes in once more. She looks like she’s going in for a body punch. Easy. I’ll just block this. I put my arms inward and prepare to catch her punch, but she drops her hands and just stomps my left foot.
“Ah! Damnit!” I yell out and manage to counterpunch with a fierce body blow. Vivian’s mouthguard almost shoots out of her mouth, but that glimmer in her eye is still there.
“What’s wrong?” Vivian holds her stomach and takes a deep breath. “You never said that was banned.”
“Never took you for a dirty fighter.” I shake my foot and begin to rush her down once again.
“Fighting is dirty.” Vivian straifes around to my right side just how I thought she would. “Picked that one up from Josh.” She’s… not spacing me. She’s just going to dive right in, huh? Very well. I can easily match her rushdown. If she wants my right side so bad, she can have it. I shoot up a roundhouse kick with my right leg.
Viv slides backwards just enough for me to whiff.
“Impossible!”
“Gotcha!” Vivian punches my heel and I’m sent spinning around. I hear Vivian jump and next thing I know, I feel two feet plant themselves onto my exposed back. I’m sent face first into the ground, but quickly recover.
“Ohoho!” I wipe my mouth, get up, and face Vivian. The fire of justice now burns within me. “Now I’m motivated!” Wait. That’s not justice. That’s my meter. Eh, it’s the same thing. I feel like I’m at about 75% right now. That’s more than enough.
Vivian says nothing, but sprints at me once more. Let’s give her a little taste of an EX Fireball. My fists flash, and I throw out a fireball three times the size of my normal ones.
Vivian sidesteps it to my right again. “Really? Another- ACK!”
Before she can finish, the fireball homes in on her and blasts her into the air.
I run up, catch her by the ankles on her descent, and spin her around.
“This is going to suck!” Vivian squirms in my grip and reaches for my arms, but it's no use.
I chuck her against the wall and she bounces off it and hits the floor looking pretty dizzy.
“Damn… You’re pretty good.” she shakes her head, wipes off her mouth, rubs a bruise, and stands up again. Her stance is off. Way off. Throw must’ve done more than I thought. I look at her gloves and see blood on them. There’s some blood dripping down her lip too.
I lower my hands. “Vivian. We need to stop. You’ve had enough.”
“What’s wrong?” Vivian spits some blood out on the ground. Her eye locks onto me. It’s twitching with an uncanny fervor. “Scared you’ll lose?” She flashes this smile at me. Her teeth are stained red. There’s no hatred or anger in her eyes or lips… I’m not sure if I want there to be.
There’s some distance between us. Might as well taunt to build meter. “If you insist…” I shake my head and put my fists back up. “C’mon.” I beckon her. “That all you got?” 40%.
“Cheeky.” Vivian’s smile is gone, but her eyes are still shining. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Regardless, she looks more motivated now. Yet, instead of dashing in again, she just decides to walk towards me.
“Oho? You’re approaching me?” I spread out my arms. “Instead of playing footsies, you’re approaching me?”
“I can’t beat the crap out of you without getting closer.”
“Hoho! Then come as close as you like!” I’m really starting to enjoy this.
Vivian continues walking towards me, but drops her arms to her sides.
Is she getting tired? Is she planning something? Regardless, might as well throw a fireball… to my right. I charge up a fireball and toss it.
Vivian dodges right into it and stumbles backwards. “Damnit!” She winces and swears under her breath before continuing her march forward. “Caught on, huh?”
“A little. You have to stop being so predictable.” I toss out another fireball to the left of Vivian, but she just slides against it and continues walking. Four more steps and she’ll be in a good distance for a push kick. Haven’t pulled one of those all match. She won’t see it coming. Plus push kicks at that distance are safe on block. Well, that is unless she grabs it. Even then, I have the meter to save me. Definitely going for a push kick.
Vivian starts edging towards my left side. Good… Good. Get scared of my right. 3… 2… 1… Kick time! I take a half step forward, lift my leg, bend my knee, and shoot my heel out towards Vivian’s chest in one clean, mechanical motion.
boom Without flinching or breaking eye contact, Vivian uppercuts my foot and cleanly smashes her fist against my ankle. I feel a bolt of pain shoot up my leg and I stumble backwards. Abort abort! Cancel! I feel my meter drain, my posture restore, and next thing I know, my left leg is raised and bent again.
I glance at Vivian’s legs. She’s moving to the right again… Again?! Has she learned nothing? Time to turn my leg juuust a little bit to the right and push it out again.
push
Vivian just jumped over my leg…. Clever girl. This punish is going to suck. She jumps onto me and wraps her arms around my neck and her legs under my shoulders like a freaking spider monkey. This is bad. This is bad. Vivian grabs my helmet, rocks it back and forward like an enraged chimpanzee, and strengthens her grip around my shoulders.
I’d try to punch her off, but I can barely lift my arms. I have to take the tumble and try to land on her. I teeter forward head-first with Vivian’s torso still firmly planted against my face. I land on her, but that just gives her the opportunity to loosen up and wrap her thighs around my neck. Her breath is shaky. Her thighs are trembling. Damnit! Just stop looking at me like that already! I try to dig between her thighs and my neck, but it’s no use. Her thighs are too strong. I clench my hands around her calves to try to pry her off. Her grip is strong, but its sturdiness is wearing thin… So’s my breath… I need to get her off before I surrender. I genuinely feel she may kill me. The only good part of all this is that my meter’s nearly full again. If I pry her off, I’m gold.
Unfortunately, Vivian must have realized her grip was wearing thin, so she relinquished her grip, slid her legs out of my grip, and stepped on my chest twice as she got up. She turned and kicked me twice in the side while I was down. That’s it. Foot-stomping I can tolerate, but kicking a downed opponent is just disgusting. Time to wake-up super this disrespectful filth. I take a deep breath, feel my soul ignite, and just as Vivian’s about to kick me again, I propel myself off the ground and aim my legs square at Vivian’s chin. If I have to kick her to the ceiling to teach her proper fight etiquette, so be it.
buh-buh-boom
… I kick Vivian three times… but I didn’t kick her chin. She blocked. She blocked… and I can’t do anything but finish my super animation. I continue doing spin kicks up to the ceiling. Every time I spin, I see Vivian smirking up at me.
“Don’t wake up super, you idiot!” Vivian laughs and begins walking under me.
I stay silent and just fall back to Earth ready to accept whatever sick punish may await me… I cannot believe it… I got baited super hard. I fall belly-first and see Vivian cracking her knuckles.
She takes a deep breath, widens her stance, and begins punching me rapidly. “ATATATATATATATATATATA!!!” Vivian is keeping me suspended in the air through the sheer force of her punches. “ATATATATATATA!!!”
This hurts… this hurts so much, but I can tell it’s wearing on her too. Her arms grow weaker with each punch and her stance gets sloppier and sloppier… and yet that glimmer in her eye just won’t go away. She only manages to keep me suspended for four seconds before her arms grow too weak and I fall directly on her.
I land belly-first on her and my face lands just off her shoulder. We’re both breathing heavily and I can feel my bruised blood vessels reopen.
“Ready… to… give up…?” Vivian gives a pained chuckle.
“No…” I take a deep breath and slowly rise. My arms wind up on their own and begin pelting Vivian’s chest and face with punches. My thighs tighten around her waist. If she’s going to fight dirty, then so shall I.
Punch after punch, Vivian just takes it. She stiffens her body, tries to protect her face, and just smiles up at me. I can tell she’s holding her tongue and gritting her teeth, but she still has that damn look. “Stop looking at me like that!” I wind up a two-handed hammer punch.
But before I can swing, Vivian kicks me off with both her legs. I only go flying about two feet off her… but one of her feet hit my neck. I can barely breathe… Can barely even see straight. I need to finish this… she’s not looking too great either. She’s slouched over and most of her skin is bruised. Seems like she can only open her eyes halfway as well. Stupid body… Move… I treat you well, I give you nutrients, now move! Come on! Get up!
I glance up and see Vivian is already getting up. She looks ready to fall apart, but she’s still getting up. I refuse to lose to her. Just one win on me is too many. Get… up… My fist plants itself into the ground and I feel my legs rise.
A whole minute passes and me and Vivian are finally standing up. She’s now sporting a bloody nose and a black eye, but she’s still functioning. Probably can’t see straight, but she’s functioning.
“Ready to give up?” I raise my fists and try to control my breathing.
“Ready when you are.” Vivian licks the blood off her lip.
“Let’s finish this.” I stumble towards her as quickly as my injured legs will let me and I punch at her throat.
She punches my fist. I can hear a knuckle crack, but that won’t stop me. Punch again.
She punches my fist once more. Same strength. Same trajectory. She won’t take her eyes off me.
She goes for a roundhouse kick, I kick her leg.
I go for a push kick, she crashes her heel against mine.
Punch after punch, kick after kick… Neither of us can get a clean hit in. I can’t tell if I’m mirroring her moves, or if she’s mirroring mine. As our blood boils and our sinew begins to waver… I… I begin to feel something from Vivian’s eyes. It’s the same look… but it feels different. With each punch and kick that meets, I feel it grow clearer and clearer… It’s wild, but it’s familiar. I can no longer tell if we are sparring or dancing… Our fists are the instruments and the mat is our dance floor. Both of us are leading, because neither of us yields. I do not know if she is trying to counterattack, or merely trying to block. Yet I no longer care. We’ve synchronized. Every punch. Every weave… No matter how sloppy or painful it is, it feels right. I’m beyond exhausted. I have no idea how my body is still moving, but something in me demands I keep going. It’s not anger, not pride, not even hatred. I… I understand now.
Just as epiphany strikes me, I see Vivian winding up a headbutt. My body obliges, and I also wind up a headbutt. A second later, our skulls crash against each other and we fall to our knees. She’s resting her head in my collarbone, and I’m resting mine in hers. Sweat and blood falls down our necks and stains our protective gear.
“Had… enough…?” I can barely keep my eyes open.
“What… do… you think?”
Vivian and I fall onto our backs, stare up at the ceiling, and lie in our own sweat.
I see Vivian gesture towards the door.
The door opens and our teammates flood in.
“Aaaw damnit, Viv!” Yuko rushes over to her. “Why’d you have to win? I just lost $20.”
“What are you talking about?” Angela clutches her money. “A.D. totally won. Just look at him.”
“They both look like death…” Sejong grimaces before pressing a blue button on the wall. “I’m calling the medics.”
“I lost…?” Vivian laughs. “I don’t even care if that counts. I got the moral victory.”
“Did we open a pool for moral victories?” Josh asks.
“No… but we totes should do that next time.” Angela shovels Yuko’s money into her pocket.
Will and Janelle lean over us and offer their hands.
“Don’t you think you two overdid it a little?” Will asks as he helps Vivian up.
Janelle helps me up and immediately presses a freezing cold ice packet to my neck.
“No…” I groan. “Even if we did, it was well worth it…” I extend an open hand to Vivian. “Right?”
“Damn right.” Vivian wipes her bloody nose with her hand and shakes my hand.
“Aw, c’mon.” I pull away and wipe the blood on the protective gear. “Why’d you have to do that?”
“Relax. I’m clean.” Vivian says before stumbling over clutching her stomach. “Oooh… Janelle, you got any more of those ice packs? A.D. punches like a freaking train.”
“And your punches… are full of justice.” I point back at her.
Janelle
October 22, 2007. 4:47 p.m. Shooting Range C. Singe marks and small pockets of flame litter the room. Blasted pieces of target shrapnel and bent metal lie stuck in the walls as well. I should stop… I’m not getting anywhere, but I need to keep going...
“Keep it going, Janelle.” Will pats me on the head. “You’re almost there. I can feel it.”
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I look up at him, take a deep breath, and nod. “Okay… Just let me get another coat on.” I do just that, take a wide stance, and envelop my arms in flame once again.
“Start!” Will presses a green button on the wall. A siren blares and moving targets once again start weaving on the range. “Go get them!”
snap Miss
“You got this, Janellibelli. Just try again.”
snap Miss snap Too big. Destroyed the target.
“You’ll get it next time. Bend your arms a little more.” Will smiles.
snap Completely missed.
snap No flame at all.
“Try slowing down. Try getting just one good hit in.”
Come on! Do it, fire! You were working fine yesterday! snap snap snap Barely managed to singe one target.
“Darling,” Will speaks up and extends his arm towards me. “Just take it easy…”
“Will!” I stomp my foot and a pillar of flame shoots out around me.
“Whoa!” Will stumbles backwards holding his hand. “Janelle!”
“Just be quiet!” Blue fire drips off my arms. “Stop talking! Shut up!”
Will takes a deep breath and walks backwards out of the room. “Very well… I will leave you be.” he leaves, closes the door behind him, and runs outside grasping his hand.
“God damnit…” the fire around me dies out and the residue flame on the other end of the range flows back into me. My foot kicks the range counter again and again and again. Maybe if I hurt enough, I’ll get better. Maybe I deserve it… I’m so pathetic… Six years with this Tech and I still can’t even aim a little snap right.
kick
Ow… I know that isn’t a broken toe, but it certainly feels like it. Nothing but the sound of my own breath pollutes the shooting range. Calm down… Calm down… You have no distractions. You have no excuses anymore. Try it again. If you can’t do it now, you can’t do it ever. I lift my thumb towards a stationary target. My hand’s still shaking a little and some tears are clouding my vision, but I can still see the shape of the target just fine. Deep breaths… Empty mind… No accidental explosions. Temperature is nominal. Breathing is steady… I am ready…
snap
Nothing. Not even so much as a spark. Temperature hasn’t changed either.
snap snap snap
Still no fire.
Just as I’m about to burst out into tears, I hear someone knock on the door. I look over and see Sejong waving in through the door window.
Might as well take a break… I’m not getting anywhere. I sit down on the range counter, rub my eyes, and wave Sejong in.
Sejong enters and closes the door behind her. “Hey, Janelle. You doing okay?”
“Do I look okay?” I ask while avoiding her stare.
“Eh. You kinda always look the same to me.” Sejong shrugs and approaches me. “Big poofy jacket, tired face, clean shiny hair.”
“Thanks? Why are you here?”
“I’m just looking around for another training partner.”
“Eh? I thought you were training with Yuko?”
“I was.” Sejong sits down next to me. “But she quit after one sparring match. Said I freaked her out too much.”
“How’d you do that?”
Sejong’s lips literally stretch up past her ears into a sick grin. “You sure you wanna see?”
“You know what?” I consider the possibilities for two seconds. “Never mind.”
“A wise decision.” Sejong stretches her arms upward. “So, do you want to spar?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I’ve had enough for the day.”
“Aw, why?” Sejong leans towards me. “What happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Pweeeeease?” Sejong grows her eyelashes long and bats puppy eyes at me.
I raise my hand. Fire envelopes it by itself. “Oh, of course. Now you show up.” I look at my hand and sigh.
Sejong glances at my hand, then back at me. “Ooooh. You’re having Tech issues?”
“You could say that…” The flame around my arm extinguishes itself.
“Well, well. I can help you with that.” She puffs out her chest proudly and puts her hands on her hips. “I’m somewhat of a Tech master myself.”
“What do you mean?”
Sejong’s expression turns dire for a moment. “You have no idea how hard it is for me to maintain this form.”
I see her eyeballs rotate wildly for a second. “I’ll take your word on that.” I sigh. I doubt she can help me, but it couldn’t hurt to try. “Alright. Please. Please help me.”
“Can do.” Sejong nods. “Let me guess. Fire isn’t coming out when you want it to?”
“Yes.” I nod and punch the air in front of me. “See? Tried to shoot fire, couldn’t even produce a spark.”
“I see…” Sejong rubs her chin before slapping me across the face.
“What the hell was that for?!” Flame shoots off my shoulders as I hold my cheek.
“I understand.” Sejong gives a little cheeky chuckle. “This is way simpler than I expected. Seems your fire output is tied to your emotional state. Anger equals fire, calm equals no fire. Boom. Done.”
“That… There’s no way it can be that simple.” I feel the fire die down and retreat into my shoulders.
“Well, do you have any better ideas?” Sejong’s eyeball rolls around again. I want to vomit just looking at it.
“Can’t say I do… great. As if fire wasn’t hard enough to control.” I lie back against the counter and look up at the ceiling.
“Aw, c’mon. You can do it. All you got to do is find a balance between anger and tranquility.”
bang bang
Someone bangs against the range door. The door opens and Angela struts in. “Yo, Sejong!”
“Bwah!” Sejong’s arm pops out of its socket for a moment before sliding back in. “What is up, Angela?”
“Dude! You gotta come with me! Yuko’s doing jumping jacks!”
“Jang-eomhan!” Sejong’s eyes light up as she jumps off the counter and runs out the door with Angela. “I must capture this moment!”
They leave without closing the door, letting the frosty air conditioning flow into the room. “Between anger and tranquility…”
Yuko
October 24, 2007. 8:13 p.m. Back at the dorm. Had to heave Vivian around all day. Not fun. Why does she even still want to train? If I looked half as bad as her, I’d be more than content to just chill out on the couch. We enter the dorm and find Will eating some cereal on the couch watching some televangelist and A.D. asleep at the kitchen table.
“Yoo…” Vivian weakly waves to Will.
“Oh! Vivian!” Will gets off the couch and motions towards it. “Do you want the couch?”
“Yuko… can you put me on the couch?” she whispers into my ear.
“Yeah.” I grip her back, lift her legs, and put her down gently on the sofa. “Need anything?”
“Aaaw… You care about me.” Vivian’s gross black eye opens for a sec. I want to vomit. If she cared about me, she wouldn’t get her crap kicked in like this for fun.
“Viv.”
“Sorry.” Viv’s gross eye closes. “Could you just get me a new ice pack? And some water from the fridge if there’s any.”
“You got it.” I nod, enter the kitchen, and open the fridge. There’s my emergency canteen, some shiny fruit, and two slices of pizza lying on a piece of cardboard. “Yo, there’s two slices of pizza in here. You want them?”
“Pardon me.” Will raises his finger. “Those slices are mine.”
“Really?” I take them out and lick them.
“Yuko.” Will rubs his forehead.
“Relax. I’ll pay you back.” I slap the pizza in the microwave and set it for fifty seconds. “Injured teammates get priority.”
Vivian tilts her head to Will. “I mean… if you still want it, you can have it.”
“No…” Will bites his lip and shakes his head. “Gotta feed the hungry. It’s just pizza.” he slumps down to the floor and sits against the couch’s armrest.
“Thank you.” Viv smiles before she clutches her cheek. “Aahaha… aw it hurts to smile…”
“Then don’t smile, ya idiot.” I take an ice pack from the fridge and prepare to toss it. “Can you catch?”
“Yeah. Hit me.” Viv claps her hands.
I chuck the ice pack square at her.
thunk
It hits her face. Viv flinches and covers her eyes. “Damnit!”
“You said you could catch it!”
“I was wrong!” Viv laughs through the pain and presses the pack to her face. “Thank you though.” she whimpers.
“Ugh.” I stifle a laugh, pull the pizza out of the microwave, put it on a plate, and put it on Viv’s stomach. “Bon appetitty.”
“Thank you…” Viv licks her lips and takes a bite. “Wait… does… does this count as an indirect kiss?”
“Viv.” I facepalm and laughter escapes my lips. “Just eat the goddamn pizza.” My legs give out and I sit down on the couch’s armrest. “Wait a sec.” I reach into my bra and find a five. “Yo, Will. This enough?”
“That should suffice.” Will looks happy but sounds confused. “Could you give me a different bill though?”
“No.” I throw the bill onto his lap.
“Understood.” Will folds the bill neatly into his pocket.
“How’s A.D. been doing?” Viv asks with a chunk of frozen cheese in her mouth.
“Better than you.” Will bends his head back to look at Viv. “He’s just a little sore, but he managed to break his two mile record today.”
“Aw man…” Viv sounds offended. “I thought I roughed him up more.”
“Hey, man. You got some really good hits in. He was just really disappointed he wasn’t more sore.” Will looks back at the TV.
“Is that a weird sex thing?” I ask.
“I hope not.” Will lowers the TV volume. “He just says soreness is a surefire sign of him getting stronger.”
“Gotchu.”
“Who started saying ‘weird sex thing’?” Will asks.
“Dunno.” Viv shrugs before taking a bite of crust. “Got it from Angela.”
“But Angela said she got it from you.” I interject.
“Well, maybe I got it from her in this timeline, but Angela got it from me in a parallel timeline.” Viv swallows. “Then somehow, our consciousnesses between timelines switched amongst ourselves so now we have data that we never learned.”
“I don’t need that crap to be real…” I rest the back of my head against the wall. “The world is already so goddamn weird.”
“Speaking of weird.” Viv’s face lights up and her swollen eye pops open. Okay, that’s it. I’m putting makeup over that. No way in hell am I letting her walk outside with that again. “Will, mind if I ask you a weird question?”
“Depends on how sinful it is.”
“There’s zero sin involved. Pinky promise. Do you have Oso’s number?”
The room falls silent. Feel my heart damn near crap itself just by hearing that.
“I… do.” Will turns around to look at Vivian. “Why would you need that?”
“I want to ask him something. Mind if you call him for me?”
“I can’t. He blocked my number after I changed sides.”
“I see. Can you give me his number?”
“You aren’t going to do anything to tick off Headmaster, are you? I’m afraid she’d explode me for just giving you his number.”
“Hell no.” Viv shakes her head and winces. “I just want to get more intel. I have no idea if it’d work, but it’s worth a shot, right?”
“Right you are.” Will nods, writes it down on a napkin with a nearby pen, and tosses it to Viv. “Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work though. He went through two burn-phones while I was there.”
“What’s a burn phone?” Viv asks.
I tag in. “It’s a phone criminals use to avoid getting detected by cops. My highschool buddies had some nice burn-phones.”
Will looks like he just saw a ghost. “What kinds of people were you associating with in high school?”
“The fun kind.” I grin.
“Didn’t you say you went to a prestigious high school?”
“Pfft. Yeah. Dude, all the rich schools have the most drug dealers. Rich people don’t know how much an ounce of weed is worth.” I remember the September Party Meltdown and feel a warm, but melancholy feeling swell in my chest.
“You… you don’t do drugs do you?” Will turns more pale than he already was.
I open my mouth and glance at Viv. She’s staring at me and holding her breath. I put on a smug face and cross my arms. “Wouldn’t you like to know~”
“Just don’t cause us any trouble, okay?” Will sighs and rubs his temple. “I’m amazed we survived this long.”
“I’m not complaining.” Viv takes another bite of pizza and groans.
“Moving on.” Will coughs. “Are you going to call Oso tonight?”
“Nah… I’m too tired…” Viv finishes off the pizza and slumps further into the couch cushions. “Don’t want to knock out in the middle of a call…”
“Fair enough.” Will nods and looks at A.D. “He’s been lying there long enough. I should probably go tuck him in. Night, you two.” Will begins hauling A.D. off to their room.
“Night.” I wait for Will to shut the door behind him before turning to Vivian. “Need me to tuck you in?”
“Actually… could you help me shower?” Vivian smiles. “I don’t want to go to bed all smelly.”
Vivian
October 24, 2007. 8:27 p.m. Dorm room.
“Uh… Uh.” Yuko stares at me like I just asked her to marry me.
“Earth to Yuko. You in there? Hello?” I wave my hand in front of her.
“Yeah.” She nods and smiles. It’s small, but it’s genuine and adorable to boot. “So.. um… is it going to be a shower or a ‘shower’?”
“I don’t follow.” I tilt my head. “What do you mean?”
“Never mind.” Yuko sighs and extends her arm to me. “Just get up.”
“Carry me.” I lift my arms.
“No. You’re too heavy.” Yuko flicks my forehead. “I already got enough weight on my shoulders.”
“Ooooh. So you like smaller girls, huh? I can arrange that.”
“Just get in the shower!” Yuko’s pale face grows pink as she pulls me up by my shoulder and drags me to the shower.
I ease up on her and walk into the shower room.
“You could walk?!” Yuko shuts the shower room door behind her.
“I mean I can…” My legs feel like jelly and look like chunky jelly powder. “I just really don’t want to…”
“Fine…” Yuko sighs. “Can you undress yourself or do you need help?”
“That depends.” I button up the top button on my shirt just to unbutton it. “Do you want to help?”
Yuko’s hand clings to her skirt. “Turn around.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I salute her and turn around.
I feel Yuko’s hands slide under my arms and begin unbuttoning my shirt. She’s awfully adept at this despite not seeing the buttons. It takes me like five tries to undo a button even when I’m looking. Must be from all the sewing she does. My shirt falls to the damp floor… I really need to clean that sometime. Eh, I’ll wait till I get back from Chicago.
Yuko’s hands slide around to my back and she runs her hand down my spine. “Geez… you look like garbage…” she presses her fingers into a particularly bad bruise.
I feel my entire lower back soften and pulse with pain. “Yeah. Feel like garbage too.” I breathe in through my teeth. “Please don’t do that.”
“Sorry.” Yuko stops poking my back and pulls my pants down. “Did… Did you seriously not wear underwear today?”
“Wait, what?” I look down. “Huh… I thought my jeans felt a bit rougher than usual.”
“Get in the shower.” Yuko pushes me into the shower and turns the water on.
“AIYEEEEEE! COLD COLD COLD!” My body and soul shrivel up as I begin fiddling with the water knobs.
“Quit messing with them.” I hear Yuko’s clothes hit the floor. “Just give it a while to get warm.”
“You kidding?! These showers are garbage!” I can feel the skin on my back tighten. “I’m going to freeze before I get warm water!”
I hear Yuko step in the shower and close the curtains. Her warm body presses against my back and her hands wrap around my waist. Her chin rests on the top of my head and shields me from the icy water. She’s warm… so warm… I don’t think I’ve ever felt this safe in my life. It doesn’t take long for hot water to run down my neck and warm me up. I don’t know if the shower got fixed or if it’s just Yuko. I don’t really care either way. This is good.
We stand in complete silence just letting the water wash over us for a while.
“Hey, Viv?” Yuko whispers in my ear.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t train like this anymore, okay?”
I open my mouth to refuse, but Yuko tightens her arms around me. “I got you.”
“Promise?” Yuko’s voice sounds different. It sounds… vulnerable. I wish I could see her face right now, but I know she’d probably die if I did.
“I promise.” I run my hand over hers and rest the back of my head against her chest.
“Good.” Yuko takes a deep breath before letting go and pours some soap into her hands. “Let’s get you cleaned up. You smell like ass.”