Fareeha gave a start as she felt rough and calloused fingertips delicately trace the outlines of her tattoo just under her right eye. Her training partner, Aleksandra, who had been sparring with her and won by pinning her to the mat just moments before, remained silent. Her eyes betrayed no emotion besides curiosity, but Fareeha could grasp that much by the small, wondering pout on her lips. Fareeha's breath, ragged from the exercise, seemed to be trapped inside her lungs as she remained frozen in shock. As she felt the fingers touch the curling end of her tattoo, Aleksandra finally broke the silence.

"What is this?" Her deep and rumbling accent, which Fareeha had secretly admitted to herself she found very attractive, seemed to reverb around the air around them, and Fareeha's lungs betrayed her once more. With a gulp of forced air, Fareeha panted back, "My mother had the same one. It… keeps her close."

"Mm." Aleksandra replied, seemingly lost in thought again. Her fingers never left Fareeha's cheekbone, and the burning sensation of her face (whether from the sparring or the blush she knew to be creeping up, she did not know) made her painfully aware of her position. Aleksandra's free hand still pressed her wrist firmly into the mat, and she straddled Fareeha's hips in a way that she could never hope to buck her off. Not that escaping truly crossed her mind, but the reminder of how she was laid out brought a temperature rise to her face.

"It is sweet." Aleksandra continued, and Fareeha suddenly realized how full and pink her lips actually were when they moved like that. "I'm sure your mother enjoys the sentiment also."

Fareeha muttered a "Well, I hope so", lost for words beyond that. Maybe it was just her oxygen deprived brain, but talking was getting harder and harder the longer she stared up at the chiseled face above her. That face, with eyes that were also staring back at her, with another, unreadable expression that frustrated her, for she knew her gawking mouth and wide eyes let her be read like a book. She couldn't even distinguish the color of her eyes, which were a blue-green combination, and in that moment Fareeha realized she had been staring for far too long. She cleared her throat, and offered up her own free hand, and thankfully Aleksandra grasped it in her own. Before pulling her up, however, there was a brief pause, a moment when her hand, big and calloused, cradled her own, smaller and thinner, but no less tough. She gave Fareeha another, indecipherable look, which made her heart skip a beat, then tossed Fareeha up as easily as a child half her weight.

"That was a good match." Aleksandra commented when they had separated, Fareeha hurriedly reaching for her water bottle and dousing her sweaty face and bangs in the cool water. "I hope that we can find the time to spar another time, in the future." Fareeha almost choked on the water, but recovered with a small cough.

"Yeah, that would be great." Was that even the word she would use for… this? Aleksandra grinned, and held out her hand for a shake, and Fareeha's own (which she found to be shaking) took it, and she quietly reveled in the moment of contact, the heat on heat, before they separated once more.

"In the future, then." Aleksandra hefted her duffel bag over her shoulder, and strode to the gym door. And when she paused and looked back to see Fareeha staring at her, she winked, and disappeared beyond the doors. Fareeha nearly choked again, and covered her face with her towel, groaning into it like a pillow. But, against herself, she smiled into the soaked fabric. She would be very excited to see what the future held.