We made our way back to the cafe and sat down with Wayne. His reaction was expected.

"Where did you go--Red what are? What happened to Carnie?"

"Oh don't worry about her, she just got her ass kicked by me!" Red gave me a weird look after I made that comment but didn't say anything.

"You did that to her, a little girl?"

Oh come on, she can't even be classified as a little girl when she's got an ability like that! She's in the monster category for sure!

"Don't get your nuts in a twist Waynie-boy, I'm going to get him back for it."

"So you've already decided to accept my match?"

Carnie reaches across the table and grabs mine and Wayne's tray, practically inhaling the contents of them. She eats all of the food, or rather just the meat, in under a minute before responding.

"It hasn't even been ten fucking minutes and you're already bragging about it to people. I can't be having that so I'll set the record straight. Tell all the people you want about how you beat me, then I'll tear you apart in front of them!" As she spoke the bruises on her face began to disappear. "Oh, I'm talking metaphorically though." She smiled and tilted her head to the side as she reached up, resetting her broken nose. "So bitch, when did you want to have this match then?"

Shit, I hadn't thought about that, the match idea just happened to pop in my head when we were talking. How soon would she be willing to do it? Should I even try to do it soon, I'm still training after all? But that doesn't change the fact that I want to see the results of my hard work. The fastest I should probably do it would be a day from now. Even with my body perfectly healed I still have shit for energy right now since I haven't taken a rest day, I've just been pushing through it.

"After tomorrow."

Carnie stands up, slamming her hands down on the table, "Alright, I'll make sure to drop your tight ass then!" She turns to Red and picks her up, "Come on, your coming with me! Can't have you fucking him right before the fight, everybody will say I only beat him because you made his legs weak!" She carries Red away with what looks to be a lot of effort. Red seems to be frozen by the comment Carnie made.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised she can pick up Red. Carnie was able to toss me a few feet after all and even I threw Red to the ground once, so I know she isn't as heavy as her massive strength makes it seem. If I think about it, Carnie should have no problem carrying Red at her full strength.

Wait, what did Carnie say?

"What the fuck just happened?"

"That's right, sorry about that. Carnie was in a little bit of a depressed mood so I helped her out a bit, and in return, I asked her to have a match with me."

"Helped her? But I thought you were the one who hurt her like that?"

"Well, that was a part of helping her."

"So you hurt her, to help her? What a roundabout way of helping someone, why not just help them?"

"..."

"But why was Red here then?"

"She was the one who asked me to help Carnie. Since I helped her too, she said she won't be bothering you anymore."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"You got Red to agree to that?"

"Yes." More or less. She had already planned to leave you alone but I still did ask her to since I'm such a good friend so I'll still take responsibility for it.

...What did I just call him?

"Veronica's right, I considered it, but for it to actually be true!"

"Stop babbling over there like a Crazy person Wayne. Let's go train!"

As we left the cafe we could hear screaming coming from the food line.

"I haven't eaten in fucking weeks! And you want to complain about me taking extra? Fuck you! Consider this the food I would have eaten all those days, I've just been saving it. Red, let go of me! You know I'm right! NO, IF I TAKE YOUR FOOD THAT TAKES AWAY FROM THE POINT I'M MAKING!"

"Do you think we should?"

I quickly cut Wayne off and put my arm around him to keep him moving out of the cafe, "Shhh. Don't look back, it's nothing we need to worry about. I'm sure Red can handle it fine.

----------------------------------------

Wayne drops the shaking barbell down on the rack speaking with a breath between almost every word, "And, people, enjoy this?"

"I wouldn't say I enjoy this but I do enjoy the results of this. I bet if you got Veronica to give you some of her stuff you would progress faster and then you would really enjoy it."

"No, I could never ask her for it."

"Why? Are you really scared of Jason that much? He's not that bad of a guy from what I can tell, you shouldn't be so scared of him."

"It's a little bit that, but it's also something else."

"What you gonna leave me hanging? What is it, you like Veronica?"

"No, of course not! It's, I get the feeling that Jason is so protective over her and it for a reason. I don't know what she's been through but I can only imagine what people might do if they found out that someone had something that could heal almost anything."

The fuck does it matter, it's only her spit, not like it hurts her to give it out. I do wonder what the more powerful healing solutions she talked about might be but Wayne couldn't know more than I do. He worries about everyone too much.

"If that's how you feel about it, okay."

A voice appeared in my head, "You brought Wayne back again?"

Yeah, I told you he said he wants to train.

"How can you not see that he doesn't like training? He wants to spend more time with you is all. With your new growth rate, you should be able to afford to take a day off to hang out with him or something."

No! I'm not strong enough yet. I don't know when I might get another chance like the last one so I have to be ready as soon as possible. I won't let him slip through my fingers again.

"What do you call your match with Carnie then? If you can spare time for that then it should be fine?"

That's to see how much I've grown, and if I don't think it is enough I'll have to adjust accordingly. Besides, with as good as she is I'm sure to learn something from a real fight with her.

"Make all the excuses you want for all I care. Are we training today or what?"

No, I'm just going to do a light day and take tomorrow off to recover some energy.

"About damn time, you've been exhausting me lately. Even with Veronica's help, I don't think it's good to not let yourself rest at all."

What, am I catching up to you already?

"Physically speaking, maybe, I'm only human after all. Mentally speaking, not even close."