Jon straightened himself up on the couch. He wasn’t used to being in such a comfortable, homely place since he left his own in the farm. It felt a little disconcerting. Especially now that Charlotte’s attention was on him and there was nothing to think about.

“Lana really does seem to admire you a lot,” Charlotte began.

Jon waited before answering, unsure if he should confirm or deny that point. He just nodded to show that he was listening.

“Do you admire her?” Charlotte asked.

“Yes, but… I’ve never seen her fight,” he said solemnly.

“Oh?” Charlotte kicked her legs out in excitement. “Lana’s a great warrior! It’s always a privilege being able to see watch her go at it! Shame she’s always stuck behind a desk.”

Jon nodded again, showing his agreement.

“Me and her are about even in strength,” Charlotte told him. “It’s almost embarrassing, her being a couple years younger and all. But I’m so proud of her and what she’s done.”

“I’ve… never seen you fight either.”

Charlotte gasped. “Right, right, you haven’t. You want to?”

Jon felt a shiver in his stomach, similar to what he felt around Amalia when he was alone. His body tried to force a smile but he fought it. He had no reason to be happy.

“Do you want to get dressed first?” Jon asked. It was the only way he could redirect the question, but it was also the only thing he could think of.

“Sure, sure! Come on.”

Oh no…

Charlotte stood up and grabbed Jon by the wrist. He didn’t fight her as she pulled him up and took him down the hallway.

Where am I going? Jon still fought the struggling smile on his face. Unlike with Amalia, he almost felt excited about the warm shivering inside of him. There was a sense of comfort that Charlotte gave him, that let him feel like he could trust his feelings around her.

Jon grew out of his haze when he realized they were in front of her room.

He stood up straight and put his back on the wall next to her door.

Charlotte walked in without any mind to him. She didn’t close the door behind her, and Jon had an urge to follow after her. He didn’t, though. He didn’t want to embarrass Hector again by being in the room while Charlotte was getting dressed.

He tried not to imagine the fact that Charlotte might have not been wearing anything while he waited. He wanted to say something about the door, but maybe she was comfortable like this, and he didn’t want to appear weird.

He heard all the shuffling coming from inside the room, and he worked his best to not peer curiously. The task was more daunting than Jon wished it had been.

While this was happening, a door across the hallway swung open, and Hector groggily walked out.

Jon’s body relaxed when he saw Hector, knowing that he wouldn’t be alone with Charlotte.

Hector’s eyebrow arched in confusion when he saw Jon. “What are you doing, Jon?”

“He’s waiting for me!” Charlotte announced eagerly from the room.

Hector walked over and peered into the room.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“I’m getting dressed!”

Hector looked at Jon. Jon tried to press against the wall and seem invisible.

“You know… Jon has a girlfriend, sort of, right?” Hector said slowly.

“Sort of? What? What nonsense are you talking about, Hector?”

Hector stared at Jon until he shrugged.

“I need to go to the bathroom.” He walked off again.

Jon hated watching his friend walk off. He needed to not be alone with Charlotte anymore.

“Jon…” Charlotte’s voice called calmly from the room.

Jon curled his toes, stopping himself from walking into the room.

“Can you bring me the locket on my desk?”

Jon trembled in place until he gathered his nerves together. He turned into the room.

His heart skipped when he saw Charlotte’s bare back, but she was mostly dressed, with the unzipped yellow gown still draped past her shoulders.

He focused on the desk next to the door and saw a yellow circular object with a red jewel in the center.

He took it and brought it to Charlotte, who finally raised the gown over her shoulders. She took the amulet and fixed it to the front of the gown.

“Thank you, Jon,” she said.

Jon nodded, looking away from the amulet.

“Yes! I’m ready!” Charlotte stood up and came around the bed before pulling Jon by the wrist again and bringing him out the room.

They wandered into the end of the hallway where the giant sparring circle was.

Charlotte finally released Jon at the end of the circle before running into the center.

She turned and raised her hand, leaping from side to side with her hands raised in front of her and partially curled up into a fist.

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“So, you wanna see me dance, don’t you-”

“No, no, no!” Hector dashed towards the circle, putting himself in front of Jon and holding his own hand out towards his sister. His other hand was keeping his pants up to his waist.

“Fix your pants, properly!” Charlotte called out. She stopped bouncing.

“Don’t do this with Jon!” Hector said, his hands racing around his hips to work his pants. “He’s not that type of fighter.”

What type of fighter is he?” Charlotte asked. “One who doesn’t fight?”

“No!” Hector answered. “He runs away a lot and whatnot. He’s not great at close engagements.”

Jon could have refuted Hector, but Jon had to remind himself that just because he was more comfortable in close engagements still didn’t mean that it was an ideal situation to be in. He even just barely got out of the situation with Jules in the forest. Jon was still relatively weak in the grand scheme of things. It was only through quick thinking, teamwork, and good strategy that he managed to win over many of his previous encounters. It didn’t make him any less excited to spar with Charlotte, though.

“Then this is the perfect exercise for him, isn’t it?” Charlotte hopped side to side again.

Jon didn’t know why, but he blushed.

“Okay. Then let me explain.” Hector turned around and saw Jon’s flustered face.

“Why are you burning up?” Hector asked. “Are you sick?”

Jon shook his head, too embarrassed to answer with his voice.

“Okay, then.” Hector went on to explain the sparring exercise. “The goal of the exercise is to try to tackle Charlotte to the ground. She’s gonna try to keep us away with-”

“Wait!” Mallory called out while he jogged down the hallway and entered the circle with them. He took a moment when he got there to bow over and catch his breath.

“Let me do it too,” Mallory said. “I… I… I need this… Jon needs this.”

Mallory pulled himself up. “We all need this. To learn to work together without the girls.”

“3 men on one woman? Don’t I feel honored?” Charlotte stopped hopping, spreading her feet apart and lowering her posture. She leaned over to the right so that her upper body was braced over her foot.

“Girl, that’s nasty,” Mallory commented.

“How is that nasty?”

Mallory turned and saw that Hector and Jon were staring at him, waiting for an answer to Hector’s inquiry.

“Uhh… never mind.” Mallory coughed uncomfortably. “That’s just Tallow stuck in my head… Let’s uh… do this.”

They all turned back to Charlotte.

“Just tackle her?” Jon asked.

“Yeah," Hector said. "It's not as easy as it sounds. Uh. Let’s spread out. We’re gonna wanna spread out.”

On cue, Hector and Mallory started moving in opposite directions circling around Charlotte.

"I'm gonna start in a few seconds!" Charlotte announced from the center of the circle.

“It’s not gonna hurt!” Mallory called out after. It took Jon a moment to understand Mallory was specifically speaking to him.

Somehow, hearing that he wouldn't be hurt scared Jon more.

“If you get knocked out the circle, you sit out for the rest of the game!” Charlotte instructed from afar. She suddenly punched the air in front of her several times in succession. She didn’t reach out very far, her arms never fully extending and keeping the punches closer to her body so that they moved at a rapid pace.

Jon recognized the movement as something Macy had done as a taunt. The move here looked more than that.

“I’m starting!” Charlotte called out. She made a wide kick.

Her leg traced a line of fire that expanded and shot out into the air above their heads before disappearing.

All three of the boys lowered their heads even if they weren’t in the path of the attack. Jon still managed to look up in awe.

“What does she do?” Jon asked, hoping for a tactic of sorts. Hector probably knew his sister's style well enough.

“Charlotte does everything,” Hector answered. “She's not weak enough in anything to make a good strategy. You’re just gonna have to be on your guard. She’s gonna keep to projectiles. for now... to keep it fair.”

Fair?

Hector made a quick glance over his shoulders to Jon.

"Whatever you do, don't let her touch you."

Jon gulped. It was only now did he remember Mallory's recounting of Charlotte's strength maybe even equaling her father's.

But as Hector said, Charlotte stayed in her spot. beginning to send out more and more blades of fire, all in what looked like random directions.

Jon grimly accepted the idea that Charlotte was doing this as a handicap. He was probably never gonna see the full extent of her strength, even with the three of them trying to overwhelm her.

Suddenly, one of the seemingly random blades whipped across the ground, curving towards Jon, but ultimately missing him passing by without damage.

Jon shivered. Even without touching it, he could feel the energy of it. One touch was enough to probably send him out of the entire circle. He was reminded of how important it was to keep his ground by thinking back to the tournament of power.

Reiterating his need to focus, his shoulders hunched over slightly, ready to push his weight forward. He decided to take a step toward her. Running would be too obvious to her and just instigate a response.

He was glad to see Mallory and Hector also taking their steps forward as well. He felt a sort of synchrony between each of them.

Charlotte lowered her posture even more until she planted her palm on the ground and held her body up as she kicked out.

Jon felt an urge to leap, but this time the projectile was meant for Hector, who dived out of the way in time to miss the fire.

Charlotte continued to spin on her hands, holding herself upside down while she spun and releasing ground-level fire waves now at a consistent pace.

“She’s going for it now!” Hector called.

Jon wished that he could take in the spectacle that was Charlotte’s grounded movements, but he was too focused on just watching her feet so that he didn’t get knocked out.

Then it finally happened. One blade of fire dragged across the ground, heading straight for Jon.

Jon dived to the side in a panic. He wasn’t able to measure the area in front of him correctly, so he landed hard on his side, skidding onto the floor and losing all momentum.

He watched in fearful anticipation as the next blade of fire made its way toward his incapacitated body. Without his gun, he lost his ability to manipulate the friction around his body at will.

Hector stepped up in front of Jon and crossed his forearms over his face.

The projectile dispersed. Jon felt the remnants of the energy brush over his face.

Charlotte rose up from the ground. “Hector, that was amazing! Did you dispel that? With mana?”

“I, uhh…” Hector wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Look at that! Not a scratch on you! Margie would be proud! A while ago, you would have just eaten it with your-”

“Whatever!” Hector called. “I failed. I used mana. Let’s start over.”

“No.” Charlotte rolled her elbows. “New rules. Hector gets to act as mage for the rest of the round. No body mana from you! Just full spells!”

Hector groaned. “I’m not even that good at-”

Hector batted away at the small fire tossed at his head with only one hand. Charlotte gleamed and jumped up and down.

“Oh, Hector, you have to. Who knows when you’re gonna have to use a spell in the middle of combat. Mallory can’t do all your spellcasting for you!”

Jon saw that while Charlotte was speaking, Mallory was creeping over towards Charlotte from the side.

Jon had never seen such a playful side to the spellcaster. He decided to keep quiet and see what would happen.

When he was within distance, Mallory took a big step forward, ready to throw himself at her.

Charlotte simply pushed out her palm in his direction.

Mallory was knocked back by a blast of fire, rolling over his head multiple times until he came to a stop on his back

“Do the exercise, Hector,” Mallory called out, visibly dazed and unable to sit up straight. “It’ll give us something to work on!”

Jon could hear a heavy sigh from Hector. However, his fist pulled back and the usual orange spell circle began to spread out from under his feet.