Eva walked into the nearest gym and took a moment to look around before deciding what to do. There were about a dozen other people in the gym when she entered, most utilising some of the equipment, others standing around – none of which she knew.

 

Eva walked over to an unused boxing bag which hung from the ceiling at one side of a sparring mat. She peeled her shirt off leaving her dressed in just her grey sweatpants and a tight, body hugging top of the same colour flattened her breasts snugly and left her shoulders and midriff bare. She pulled a pair of sparring gloves from a hook on the wall and strapped them on, covering the backs of her hands and fingers in a thin layer of dense foam.

 

She started punching at the hanging bag, softly at first to get into a nice rhythm and then more powerfully. Moving around the bag she hit it hard enough to send it swinging back away from herself. She ducked an imaginary blow and then lifted her knee to stop the bag as it swung back before stepping back and delivering another series of punishing blows.

 

“I hear you had your first run in with pirates.” a man’s voice from behind her startled Eva. She spun around to face the source of the voice and found Blinkie standing on the edge of the padded mat looking at her curiously. He was dressed in sweatpants and a singlet top which showed off toned shoulders and arms, and Eva could see the swell of his strong chest easily through the thin fabric and bit her lip subconsciously before forcing her gaze back up to meet his eyes.

 

She suddenly became self-conscious of her own appearance and pushed strands of her red hair that had escaped her ponytail off her face and tucked them behind her ears with her thumbs, trying to compose herself as she caught her breath.

 

“They aren’t my first pirates” Eva began defensively, but softened her tone before continuing, “Besides, we don’t even know what they are. They didn’t attack us. They were just stupid enough to run away when we hailed them.”

 

“Either way, we’ll know soon enough once we finish interrogating them, and I’m sure their ships can tell us a thing or two about where they have been lurking.” Blinkie said.

 

“We?” Eva asked before she realised his meaning, “Ooooh right…. Recon and Intel. Well, good luck with that. I’m just glad I didn’t get Dizzie killed out there today.”

 

“From what I hear, you saved her from taking some direct fire.” Blinkie said matter-of-factly as he began to stretch his muscles, pressing one arm across his body and pulling it close with the other, and then changing sides to stretch the other shoulder.

 

Eva shrugged and started loosening the straps of her sparing gloves, unconsciously flexing her fingers as the tension was taken off them. Blinkie seemed disappointed to see her removing the gloves causing Eva to look at him questioningly, “Is something wrong?”

 

“Well….” he said as he pulled each leg up to his chest one at a time, “Your friends say that you were quite the fighter back on Gen. I was hoping to see it for myself.”

 

Eva stared at the man dumbfounded for a moment. The first time she had seen this man she had to force herself to stop staring at him in childish pining, and here he was, asking to spar? She took a deep breath and forced a smile, motioning towards the spare sparing gloves that lined the walls, “Very well Blinkie, let’s dance.”

 

He smiled and nodded, walking over to the gloves and choosing a pair, “Aiden…” he said, slipping his hands into the gloves and fastening them up, “Call me Aiden.”

 

Eva stretched her neck from side to side and punched her fists together in front of her chest, the padding across the top of the knuckles softening the blow. “Eva” she replied before putting up her guard and closed her hands into fists, bouncing softly on the balls of her feet in a steady rhythm as she watched Aiden take on a similar stance. The two of them circled each other on the padded floor, eyes fixed on each other making them oblivious to the fact that others in the gym had started to take notice as soon as they began to face off.

 

Aiden flicked out his left fist in a fake, testing Eva’s reflexes and she palmed it away effortlessly without giving any ground. They circled half way around again before Eva delivered a left followed quickly with a right, both of which were palmed off without problem by Aiden who then ducked low and swung a foot out at Eva’s ankles. She hopped over his sweeping leg easily without breaking her rhythm, landing softly on her feet.

 

“Eva huh? What’s that short for?” Aiden asked as he faked his left shoulder forwards but then quickly shifted to deliver a stronger punch with his right hand. Eva brought up her left forearm into the path of the punch and it connected with her arm squarely but harmlessly. She swung her own right fist directly at his face in response and he hopped backwards a foot to avoid the blow.

 

“Evangeline.” Eva answered, “But I wouldn’t suggest calling me that.” She stepped in and closed the gap he had opened, this time leading with her right, pulling it back at the last second to turn her shoulders and hurl a blow at his ribs with her left. Aiden swung his right hand down and batted her fist away but Eva was already pulling that punch too, a fake. She followed the flow of her combo, turning her shoulders back the other way again and tucking her elbow under to swing an uppercut that Aiden had to step back to avoid. Taking advantage of Aiden’s momentary unbalance and the distance he had opened up, Eva turned on the ball of her left foot, spun her body around and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to Aiden’s stomach.

 

The kick connected and brought a satisfying “Ooof” from Aiden, but he caught her foot and held it tightly in both hands, giving Eva’s leg a hard twist which caused her to roll with it to save herself from taking damage to her ankle or knee. She flipped in the air and pulled her foot free of his grip but landing hard on the mat before rolling away and back up to her feet.

 

“Eva it is then.” Aiden smiled back relaxed his stance for a moment. He raised one eyebrow slightly and regarded her, “But Eva, you’re not even trying. I was hoping to see what you could really do.”

 

Eva got to her feet and rolled her shoulders to loosen up, “Well, neither are you.” She said in a mock accusing tone.

 

“Touché Eva. Well, I guess that’s enough of a warm up then. Let’s see what you can do.  I want to see this ‘Valkyrie’ in action.”

 

Eva shrugged and unfastened her sparring gloves, tossing them to the floor behind her. She flexed her fingers and dropped into a low stance, her hands up in front of her body with her palms towards Aiden and fingers slightly parted, “Very well, come on then.”

 

Aiden tensed and sprang at Eva, his arms outstretched as if to tackle her to the ground. Eva stepped to her right at the last moment, grabbing the wrist of Aiden’s left hand and twisting it down, nullifying the strength of that hand. She then brought her right palm in and pressed it against the back of his elbow, over flexing it the wrong way and making Aiden’s entire left arm useless. She spun then, her grip giving Aiden no choice but to move with her before she finally released him with an upward yank of both of her hands, sending him rolling onto his back.

 

“Not bad…..” Aiden said as he got back to his feet and rubbed his wrist. He rolled his wrist around and smirked at her before raising his guard again, circling her as he drew near.

 

Eva made no move to attack, staying just out of arm’s reach with her hands out defensively. Aiden moved again sending a string of padded punches at her ribs, stomach and face. She palmed them each away in turn, slowly letting him press her backwards towards the edge of the mat. Finally, Aiden made a mistake, throwing a right punch to attack before he’d properly pulled his left back to guard. She ducked the punch and it sailed over her shoulder, stepped in close and slammed both of her palms into his chest sending him back a step, his arms flailing slightly in an effort to keep balance.

 

His guard destroyed, Eva pressed the attack. She landed heavy palmed attacks to his body scattering them across his chest and stomach, forcing him back step after step. He brought his right leg up to knee at her side, but she turned and caught it with her left hand and then dropped to one knee, using the momentum of her body weight to drive her elbow down hard into his thigh. He cried out at the pain and instinctively punched her in the face, hard. She reeled back and away a few feet, the metallic taste of blood in her mouth from the cut her teeth had made on the inside of her cheek and a trickle of blood trailing down from the corner of her mouth from a split lip.

 

Aiden’s stance was weakened with the new bruising swelling up in the muscles of his right thigh and he limped slightly when he moved. Eva shook her head a little to clear it and moved in fast, ducking low to sweep her leg at Aiden’s feet. He jumped over the sweep but the effort was obvious on his face and he grimaced as he landed and his right thigh screamed at him.

 

Eva launched herself out of her crouched position to charge at Aiden and he grabbed at her shoulders, his fingers gripping like iron into her skin of her right side but he missed his target on the other and ended up gripping a fistful of her hair instead. She pivoted in his grip, turning her head as her body turned so that his grip on her hair was meaningless and drove her hip into his groin.

 

He grunted in pain and fell backwards, but did not release his grip on her hair. With a surprised squeal she fell down with him and landed on top of him awkwardly, a stabbing of pain shooting through her side as her body fell across one of his knees which drove into her ribs.  She gasped loudly and rolled off him, one of her hands cradling her ribs while the other reached up to grab at his wrist where he still had hold of a fistful of her hair. It was then that she noticed that his hand that was once gripping her shoulder was now cupping his crotch, his face contorted in pain.

 

She felt a sudden flush of guilt and stopped struggling, moving closer and saying softly, “I’m sorry, are you okay….?”

 

Aiden’s eyes flashed open suddenly and his face was calm. His body moved faster than it took Eva to comprehend that she had just been tricked. His hand that was cupping himself protectively was on her waist, shoving her sideways with all of his strength. She toppled over like a ragdoll, and fell onto her back. Before she could move to get back up there was an enormous weight across her hips and realised that Aiden had straddled her. Her hair was freed but both of her wrists were gripped firmly and pinned above her head, pinning her completely helpless and vulnerable.

 

She glared up and her eyes were met by the smiling face of Aiden as it hovered over her, looking down. There was no anger or malice in his face, nor was there any gloating over the victory. He was just looking at her and she couldn’t help but return the look, her face softening with every passing breath until the two of them were just staring into each other’s eyes.

 

His eyes shifted for just a moment, flickering to her lips and then back at her eyes as quickly as a blink and she subconsciously bit her lower lip.  He leaned down painfully slowly, dipping his face closer to hers while he kept her wrists pinned above her. She froze in place, her heart pounding in her chest.

 

The sudden sound of a wolf-whistle ripped through the air, breaking the spell. Both Aiden and Eva suddenly looked around to notice that a crowd had formed to watch the fight. They had been so focused on each other that neither of them had noticed it before. They were surrounded on all sides of the mat by people gawking at them, some whispering to each other.

 

A sudden heat filled Eva’s body as and it felt like her entire skin was blushing. She bucked her hips up and Aiden willingly rolled off her and let go of her wrists, sitting back on the mat and watching her as she shouldered through the people, grabbed her shirt and almost ran out of the gym.

 

She didn’t stop until she had stormed through the stateroom of the 86th, ignoring the stunned looks on everyone’s faces at the sight of her bruised cheek and blood-soaked lip. She moved straight through to the showers, turned one on cold and stepped into the frigid water, a shiver flowing through her as the chill soaked through her clothes and into her skin. She pressing her hands against the wall and putting her forehead against it, closing her eyes.

 

"Idiot!" she cursed at herself, giving the wall a soft head butt.

 

NEXT ENTRY: Aiden