Dave

Friday, January 31

2:59 PM

I waited outside of Mindy's school. Everyday I picked her up and drove her to safe house #3 where we would train until I was all but, when I would drive her back to school for cheerleading practice.

None of that irony was lost on me; I literally drove my tiny tormenter to her torture chamber. And Mindy was actually a cheerleader. Well, she was only a cheerleader to keep Marcus in the dark about our… extracurricular activities. As far as her guardian knew, Mindy had practice everyday for three hours; actually, it was only twice a week and an hour and a half.

The rest of the time we spent training or patrolling.

The bell rang at three releasing a stream of students from the doors of the school I had spent too many years attending. I was much happier at the college I attended part time when I wasn't being Kick- Ass.

Mindy came sprinting out of the doors ahead of the rest of the students, diving in the car with a furtive look back at the building. "Drive, bitch," she ordered as a greeting.

I put the car in drive and pulled away. "So," I asked in the same voice I used when I convinced Katie I was gay.

Mindy glared at me, "I fucking hate middle school."

I grinned at her, "Just wait til high school."

"Shut the fuck up!"

I laughed as I parked in front of a nondescript group of warehouses. I grabbed Mindy's bag as we walked around the corner to the hidden entryway. My phone began buzz insistently in my back pocket. I sighed and shoved Mindy's bag at her. "I need to take this."

She smirked at me, knowing who was on the other end. "Tell Katie I send my love!"

I would certainly not tell Katie that.

"Hello?" I answered the phone, resigned to the fact that she was not going to be pleased with me.

"Wanna do something tonight?" she replied, as if she didn't know the answer.

"I would love to but-"

She cut me off. "You have to spend Friday night with a twelve year old? Where have I heard that one before?"

"Katie…."

"Do you have any idea how creepy it is how much time you spend with her? There are only so many excuses I can make for you for our friends!" yep, she sounded pretty angry.

"I'm sorry, Katie, we can do something this weekend if you want."

"If I- For the love of God Dave, I'm getting really fed up with playing second fiddle to Mindy-"

Mindy emerged from the safe house in her workout clothes and winked at me, "Dave? I need some help with my homework-" I frantically gestured for her to shut up, her grin widened and her voice got louder. "And my peanut butter and jelly sandwich!" she slammed the door on Katie's shriek.

I winced. "She's just trying to get a rise out of you," I told my irritated girlfriend. "I have to go now."

"Fuck you, Dave." The phone went dead in my hand.

"Dammit!" I muttered, kicking the side of a dumpster. I was going to kill Mindy when I got her.

"Mindy!" I shouted as I shoved my way through the heavy steal door. "What the hell was that?"

I stalked past the illuminated costumes that stood at attention in the hallway. Big Daddy seemed to be guarding the Hit Girl costume, the image was burned in the back of my mind. I didn't think she noticed the symbolism, and now I was too pissed to dwell on it.

"Hey Dave," Mindy said happily as I stormed around the corner. "Still bitching?"

"Why do you have to toy with Katie like that?" I demanded.

Mindy tilted her head to one-side ticking off reasons with her fingers. "One, she pisses me off. Two, she doesn't like me. Three, I like that shade of red on you and four, using her is the fastest way to make you mad enough to actually hit like a man, which makes my job a lot easier. Now, do you want to change or shall I beat the shit out of you in normal clothes?"

Maybe it should embarrass me that I regularly got my ass handed to me by twelve-year-old girl, but honestly, because of that I rarely had to worry about getting beat up by anyone else.

Once I had changed into sweatpants I got on the treadmill next to Mindy's who was already on mile number seven without breaking a sweat. I slowly raised the speed on mine until I was at a comfortable run. "You have fifteen miles,"

Mindy was still running when I staggered to a stop panting and retching. I was relieved to see she was breathing heavily and sweating. She snagged her bottle of water, "Five minutes, Dave."

"Fuck… you…" I panted, collapsing.

She nudged me with her tow, "Get up or you'll cramp like a little bitch." She offered me her hand. I eyed it suspiciously. "Come on, I don't bite that hard."

"Ha!" I scoffed, taking her hand anyway. We circled each other on the mat. I felt my senses expand the way they did when I was fighting. I was more wary on the training mat than I was on the streets usually, which probably wasn't the best thing, but then, nothing I'd seen out there was as scary as the little girl in pigtails in front of me.

"You can attack me once in a while, you know." Mindy commented, and when I got a little distracted by her comment, sent a jab flying at my face. I blocked the punch and her follow up kick no problem but got nailed in the face with her (slightly) padded elbow when she used the momentum of my block to spin into me with her elbow out.

I didn't allow the stars dancing in my head to distract me; I stayed focused on catching one of her kicks. I had learned the hard way that I had to watch her hands feet and head so I wouldn't eat mat too often, but most moves originated from the core, and slight shifts in weight were better to trust than openings, which were usually traps.

But I wanted her kick me. I had been working on a certain move that I was dying to try out on Mindy. I blocked and retreated as much as I could while I waited for her to take the bait I was projecting.

She faked a punch up high and then dropped, spinning with one leg outstretched; I jumped over her leg and grabbed her as she stood up. I managed to put her in a clumsy headlock. She grabbed my forearms and used them to hold her weight as she linked her feet around the back of my knees and knocking me flat on my back.

My breath exploded from my lungs in a rush and she easily escaped my grasp. She walked over the edge of the mat and snagged her water bottle, taking a drink before she tossed it over to me.

"Not bad," she commented as I swallowed. "Wanna get pizza before you drive me back?"

"I want to go again."

Mindy raised her eyebrows; I was usually too busy dying to do anything but thank God whenever she called an end to these training sessions. "Alright, but I'm not going to go easy anymore."

"You were going easy?"

"Get up, you pussy, I usually don't hit whiny little bitch-girls, but I can make an exception."

I rolled my eyes at her abuse, but got to my feet again, flinging the bottle away. Her opening jab was faster this time and I had trouble blocking it. I barely managed to get my hands down in time to catch her foot when she kicked at me, but I grabbed it and prepared for next move. Like clockwork she leapt off her bottom leg and swung it at my head, as soon as she was in the air, I shoved the foot I held away from me with enough power to disrupt her balance and send her face flying to the mat. I brought up my knee under her chin, but allowed it to cushion her fall instead of knocking her teeth out.

"I did it!" I crowed as she hit the ground, which was my mistake, because she used her forearm to sweep my feet out from under me and then sat on my chest with her hand resting on my Adam's apple. I swallowed; I hated it when she did that.

"You did it, but you're still dead." She commented before clambering off me and heaving me to my feet. "I need to shower before you drive me back to school, so you can clean up the mat."

When she reemerged from her shower ten minutes later the mat was disinfected and the empty water bottle recycled. "Cool," she said, letting her dry hair back down from its bun. "Ready to go?"

"Sure," I replied, snagging my car keys. "Did you like the way I knocked you on your ass? I could've made you eat your teeth too."

She grinned at me viciously, "But you didn't, and I still killed you, so I guess you're still my bitch, huh?"

We blasted radio all the way back to school without anymore conversation; Mindy was too busy singing loudly and off key to any song that played. I grinned at her, marveling at how fun it was to just hang out with her.

Perhaps it was weird for a nineteen year old to spend so much time with a twelve year old like Katie said, but I had always felt a connection to Mindy and now she was a part of me. I couldn't not spend time with her. I needed her to function.

I pulled into the parking lot. "See you later, Min." I said, turning down the Selena Gomez song.

She grinned at me, "Bye, Dave," she slid out of the car and swung her bag over her shoulder before turning back to shut the door. She leaned against the car and bent down to catch my eye. "Good move by the way, maybe you're out growing your little bitch phase."

She slammed the door before I could reply and sauntered off.

I couldn't help but grin all the way home.