Casual Sparring

The next morning, Ulrich was focused on a piece of white bread, with his hand and a calm flame underneath, from the stripe in his glove. Dominic watched him with such intensity that could also light the bread on fire, when Lainey came out of the room, looking at what the two were doing.

"Morning, guys." She said, looking towards Ulrich. "What's Ulrich doing?"

"Oh, that?" Dominic replied. "He's trying to make toast with his powers."

"Why, exactly?" Lainey asked.

"If I can make toast with these gloves, then it stands to reason that I could roast fish or something. You know, in case we get lost in the wilderness." Ulrich piped up, looking as though something in his body was about to explode.

"Does Japan even have a wilderness?" Lainey asked herself.

"Beats me." Dominic responded, crossing his arms. "So, any news on why our room is on lockdown?"

"Your room? Didn't Sapphire say it wasn't her?" Lainey sighed.

"Our room was locked last night, too!" Dominic yelled, getting close to Lainey, before looking towards the entrance to the boat's interior, and stepping back, before breathing deeply.

"Okay, did you ask why we were locked in?"

"Uh, I was planning on it." Lainey lied. In reality, she completely forgot about asking, and was too distracted about how hot Sapphire was. "But we got to talking about her backstory, and then…kissed me."

"Wait, she WHAT?!" Dominic screamed, with such force that Ulrich ended up unleashing a massive flare over the bread, burning his now pitch-black bread.

"Look, don't make a big deal about it, okay?" Lainey whispered, shutting his mouth. "It was just a kiss. And it only lasted a second anyway."

"Yeah, but this is a kiss from Sapphire, Lainey. That shits probably like two small clouds made of heaven." Dominic whispered. "So anyway, what part of her backstory caused her to lock us in a dark room at night?"

"I'm…not disclosing that." Lainey replied.

"Yo, Ulrich! Any ideas?" Dominic yelled towards the table. Ulrich thoughtfully took a bite from his pitch-black toast(?) which Sapphire could probably hear from the front of the boat.

"I mean, she's from the Middle East, right? Aren't they one of those religious people that really hate gay people, or whatever? Maybe that has something to do with it?"

"Uh, that’s part of it." Lainey asked, scared that Ulrich somehow heard everything that happened. “How’d you know?”

“Educated guess.” Ulrich shrugged. “But yeah, religious assholes can mess you up.”

"You too, huh?" Lainey asked, nodding.

"Nah, my mom didn't buy into it. She always said that God's issues were his, and that her issues were hers. But a guy I know got of mine got super paranoid after his parents started suspecting him."

“Oh, that sucks.” Dominic sighed.

“Tell me about it.” Ulrich sighed, taking another bite that the fish several thousand feet underneath could probably hear. “My home called the priest a bigoted dumbass and one of the priests tried to hire somebody to smash the store windows with a brick. But one talk about how damaging someone's property is a one-way ticket to hell later, and the kids back off. The priest got arrested a couple months later, forgot why."

"Oh." Lainey whispered while looking away, taking an educated guess. "So, you training today?"

"Probably." Ulrich responded, finishing his burnt toast.

"Maybe we could go with strength training." Dominic yelled with excitement. "See if Sapphire could crush that watermelon in the kitchen between her thighs."

"Why, exactly?" Ulrich asked with confusion.

"Well, Lainey's gotta know, man!"

"I don't" Lainey replied flatly.

But before she could finish thinking about Sapphire, Sapphire came out.

"Sorry about the delay, guys. What were you talking about?" She said, sunny as ever.

"Uh…fruits?" Dominic replied slowly. "Not in like, a hateful way or anything, just…I like oranges."

"Well, I'm gonna train Ulrich. You wanna get an orange?" Sapphire replied.

"Yeah, sure." Dominic replied, going into the kitchen to get an orange.

"Well, solar? You finished eating?"

"Yeah." Ulrich replied, his stomach probably in the process of committing suicide as they were speaking. He got up, and tried to put a small bit of his body heat into his gloves ahead of time, just to see he could store it. And he could. He felt the heat, like the smallest movement could cause a flare of energy, with his fingers chilled. He put his left hand over his face, his right over his stomach.

Predictably, Sapphire charged towards Ulrich, the wind in her feet exposing Lainey's other eye. She approached, looking just as mad as all the other times, ready to throw a punch. Ulrich pressed his hands together, but in the heat of the moment, it was his arms around Sapphire's hand, not his fire infused hands. Sapphire managed to wrangle her fingers into the shape of a gun, hitting him with a point-blank wind blast to the face. He let go and was sent flying into the edge of the boat, with the blast causing him to release the fire he built up directly into her face, causing her to also go flying into the other end of the boat, with Lainey trying to catch her, and also getting slammed into the boat.

Sapphire stood up, getting Lainey out from underneath her, and started laughing uproariously.

"God damn, Solar! You got me good."

"Hey, thanks. Means a lot, I guess." Ulrich chuckled. Once again getting into a fighting stance, charging a small bit of energy into his hands, while Sapphire helped Lainey up, and putting her fists up afterwards, looking more crazed than ever.

"Tell you what, Solar?" She explained calmly. "I went to you, now come to me."

Following her orders, Ulrich ran towards her, but fired a few shots at the ground towards her, the currents springing to life in front of him.

So, they work like landmines? A small shot of fire was enough to set them off, leaving him free to run towards Sapphire. No fire, as Dominic's plan probably involved Sapphire's face in top condition, but Sapphire just dodged out of the way, with Ulrich throwing a panicked punch towards her, while she quickly grabbed his wrist, and threw him down in front of Lainey.

"Gotta say, you seem to be getting better, Solar!"

"Thanks." Ulrich moaned half-heartedly.

"You still able to fight?" Sapphire asked, helping Ulrich up.

"Yep." Ulrich replied.

And so, the two kept training. Sometimes on the basis of pure strength, sometimes on their powers. Sapphire won in both departments basically every time. But on the recreation of the first time, Ulrich managed to grab the hand about to punch him and unleash a flame from his left hand onto hers, causing her to yell out in pain, before giving Ulrich a calm smile.

"Okay, I think that does it for today!" Sapphire yelled happily, smiling through the pain. "Now, I gotta get this checked out."

While in the kitchen, Sapphire put her hand in a small bucket of cool water, when Lainey came in.

"Uh, your hand okay?" She asked, hesitating.

"Oh, yeah." Sapphire replied with a calm smile. "Accidentally stuck my hand in a campfire once, so I know how these things heal. Unless there's magic glove juice in the fire or something."

"Yeah, I don't know how it works on humans." Lainey sighed. "So hey, how are you able to fight Ulrich, anyway?"

"With my fists? My legs sometimes. Can't forget the whole wind powers thing."

"No. it's just, you seem to hate dudes, and Ulrich fits that description."

Sapphire looked up at Lainey, and glanced up at the ceiling for a second.

"I guess it's like…a love for fighting, or something. I don't know, I just never thought of them as men while training, just someone to test my powers on."

"Okay…and maybe you could…not lock them in a dark room at night?"

"I mean…if you trust them enough." Sapphire sighed, hesitating. "But tell Axe that if he goes into my room again I WILL rip his dick off."

"Relax, relax." Lainey replied, making some weird gesture with her hands that tried to convey the concept of everything being okay. "I'll leave my guitar in front of the door. If anyone tries to do anything, it'll react. It's like a really weird dog."

"Okay, I'll let it happen. Now, you can leave, I'll start making something to eat."

Once food was finished and the guys went back to their rooms, Lainey calmly set her guitar down in front of the door, waiting for Sapphire to get in.

The coffee date was set. She was ready to ask Sapphire the big question. Sapphire came in after looking after the kitchen.

“You doing okay, Pink?” Sapphire asked.

“Yeah, I’m doing okay.” Lainey nodded. “But hey, there’s something I want to ask you.”

“Yeah, what?”

“You think there’d be any point in giving me some strength training?”

“You want training?” Sapphire asked.

“I mean, I know it won’t work on the demons, but it’d be cool to have, you know?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Sapphire replied with a thumbs up. “We starting tomorrow?”

“I mean, we could start right now.” Lainey shrugged.

“I dunno, it’s pretty late.” Sapphire replied, running a hand through her unruly hair. “And the suns already set.”

“I mean, I had another method in mind. And we can do it indoors.”

“What kind of training is this?” Sapphire asked.

“Well, it’s pretty efficient. The only space you really need is a bedframe. You wrestle until one person can’t do it anymore. And if you wanna go super hardcore, then clothes are entirely optional.”

“Gotta say, I’m intrigued.” Sapphire said with folded arms.

“So, how we doing this?” Lainey asked.

“I think I’ll do the no clothes option.” Sapphire chuckled to herself.

In the boys room, Ulrich was listening to some more Fewer Than Jack on Dominic's uPod, earphones plugged into his ear.

"Hey man, I'm getting a beer, you want anything?" Dominic asked.

"Yeah, I'll have a beer too, if you're getting one."

"Nice." Dominic replied, going over to the wall, and taking a wooden board in the wall out of the wall, squeezing his way through it.

"Uh, Dominic? Sapphire said she left the door open."

"Well, I know she did. But I spent two days on this secret passage out, and I'm putting it to use, dammit." Dominic countered.

Dominic was outside. He briefly took in the stillness of the world, before moving to the door. Luckily for him, it was closed, and the two days he spent on the secret passage were justified. As he was going through the hallways, he heard Lainey yelling, alongside Sapphire yelling something to her. It was pretty obvious what they were doing, so he moved on and got the beers quickly, darting back to his room as silently as possible.

"Hey man, got the beers." He blurted out quickly to Ulrich, still listening to music.

Ulrich took out his left earphone. "What was that?"

"Take the beer, man!" Yelled Dominic, violently tossing Ulrich a beer. "Also, you ever hear about Green Lobster Church, just listen to them!"

Ulrich, not questioning whatever this was, took the beer and found the Green Lobster Church in his playlist, putting it on.

Dominic, calming down, just lay in his hammock, taking a sip of whatever this beer he never heard of was. It was pretty good.

She did it.