She spears the center of the training dummy with the accuracy of a four year old. Huffing, Lian straightens up and tightens the gloves around her hands, which are starting to get sore. Why couldn't she get this? Gritting her teeth, she sends another kunai whizzing towards the training dummy, but instead of hitting it's heart, it hits his crotch. She snarls, wishing that it was Amistad's crotch instead of a synthetic training dummy's.
Lian drops her weapons and nears closer to the dummy, standing with her arms raised, ready to fight. If there was one thing that her mother taught her, it was to never solely rely on her arsenal of weaponry, she had to be skilled in hand to hand combat just as well. Of course, that lesson usually ended up with her mother pointing out her father as an example, and things would just go downhill from there.
Moving her mouth to a straight line, she tenses before beginning to strike the dummy. She couldn't grin in satisfaction when it groaned and swayed from the impact of her blows. It deserved to fall under her strength. Lian did a back handspring to get some space before getting a running start to deliver a sharp bicycle kick to the dummy's side. She grins when it falls in retaliation and turns to go get some water.
When she gets to her bag, she pulled out her phone, sighing when her screen flashed repeatedly. THREE MISSED CALLS. Of course her father would probably be worried about her; she hadn't exactly told him she was going to train. And after her erratic behavior this week, it was no wonder that he was calling to check up on her. Lian throws her phone back in her bag and zips it up; she'll deal with him later.
Lian takes off her training gloves, changes them and switches her weapons, grabbing her bow and arrows. She notches an arrow before letting it soar directly into the dummy's head. There is no denying her anger; she is livid, tired, and wants to see the dummy suffer. Over and over again she shoots it, trying out different agility moves to keep from standing in one place for too long. She aims for its heart but misses, growling in frustration.
She drops her bow and yanks off her quiver, marching up to the dummy. "You have no heart," she snarls before beginning to fight it again, hitting everywhere she can until she's sweating and breathing heavily. She doesn't even notice the doors to the training area open, and continues to pummel the poor dummy.
When Lian deems the dummy dead, she kicks it out of her sight, crouching down and resting her hands on her knees, sweaty red locks falling into her face. She doesn't have the care to brush them away. There had to be a better way to control her anger, but it wasn't like she could talk to her dad. When she'd told him what had happened, he'd grabbed his bow and was fully ready to spear August until she stopped him. No, she couldn't talk to him; he would only worry.
"You're working really hard." Lian's ears perk and she scowls. What the hell did he think he was doing here? She doesn't answer, but stands and walks past him, going to get another dummy from the equipment stash.
"Your Dad is worried about you."
"And how would you know?" Lian says acidly, dragging the dummy to the place of the previous one.
"He called. Said you weren't picking up your phone."
"Funny that he'd call you at all. You know, considering that he hates you." Amistad sighs and looks at her. Lian doesn't notice, and instead adjusts her gloves before stretching out her arms.
"He didn't call me. He called my Dad.. and I just happened to be eavesdropping."
Lian scoffs, shaking her head. Of course the blabbermouth had gone to Kaldur. He would have never directly called Amistad, and she was stupid for assuming so.
"We need to talk." Lian ignores him; the time for talking was over. He had done enough sweet talking to get her into his bed, and then ruined it all the next morning. She strikes the dummy again, wishing that she was pummeling him instead. It was a shame they were on the same team together, otherwise she would have skewered him until he was a shish kabob.
He grabs her hand mid-punch, swiveling her around so she faces him. "Did you hear me? I said we need to talk," he says sternly. He sounds so much like his father that Lian stops, but then scowls, snatching her hand away.
"You've said enough," she snarls, glaring at him.
"You didn't give me a chance to explain."
"There's nothing to explain. We slept together, but we're not getting back together. Good?"
"No, not good."
"I don't want to hear anything you have to say."
"You have no choice."
"Oh yeah? Watch me," she says, and starts to walk away. No sooner than she did so, he knocks into her and shoves her against the wall. If he were any other guy, he would have thought twice about knocking her into the wall like that, but he knew she liked it rough, and could definitely handle it.
"Let me go," she says bitterly, glaring at him.
"Fight me."
"Is that a challenge?" He smirks and she takes it as one. Forget Team rules, he was as good as dead. Her knee shoots up into his gut and he grunts, loosening his grip on her. She takes the opportunity to swing a punch at his face, and when he backs up even more she slides away from the wall, staring down her opponent. Lian smirks, beckoning him forward.
"What's the matter, Fishboy? Can't handle the challenge?" she teases, and is ready for the blast of water that he shoots her way. She dodges swiftly by doing a back handspring, but lands on her hands, sending him a mocking smile while still in a handstand.
"Over here, Lover."
Amistad straightens and grits his teeth. Lian was really going to get it; at first he had thought that he should hold back, since maybe he did deserve getting the crap kicked out of him. But now that she had him all riled up like this? She deserves some roughing up. He runs towards her, teeth baring, ready to shock her until she listened to what he had to say.
Lian springs back up on her feet, and smirks. There was one new move that he didn't know about yet. Her mom had just taught it to her, and Dick had only cemented it when he perfected her form. As he runs towards her she begins to do a series of handsprings coming towards him, noticing that he slows, even as he stands with his water bearers; good, just what she was expecting.
As he's trying to decide where to strike her, she does one last handspring, but lands her feet on his water bearers, places her hands quickly on his shoulders and hoists herself over him before, doing a handstand on his shoulders. Before he is able to process what she is doing, she swings her legs down, swiftly striking him in the butt, and she topples, unable to finish the correct landing. She grins as he groans in agony, and she pushes her hair out of her face.
"New move?" he finally sputters out, trying to catch his breath. Lian shrugs and stands, going to grab her towel and bag.
"We're done here. Don't try this again." She doesn't even take five steps before his arm is clutching her to him, and her disposed kunai is at her neck.
"Canary's lesson number one. Never turn your back on the enemy unless you're sure they're down," Amistad chides, and Lian can just feel the smirk on his face. "Would have thought that Little Miss Straight As would have remembered that," he teases, the kunai lightly scraping her chin.
"Let go of me," she snarls, trying to jerk away.
"Not until you hear what I have to say."
"Never."
"Then you leave me no choice." He drops the kunai and swings both his arms around her waist, easily lifting her and carrying her over his shoulder.
"Jackass!" she hisses. "You know I hate when you do that! Put me down! Put me down!" she hollers, squirming about in his arms.
"Like hell I will! Maybe now you'll actually listen to me!"
"August, I swear!"
"What's the matter, Kitty Cat? Out of your element?" he coos mockingly, and she growls. Lian hates it when he calls her that.
"I hate you."
"No, you don't."
"And how do you know that?"
"Because if you hated me, you wouldn't have climbed into my bed so easily that night, now would you, Li?" She blanks but balls her fists.
"That was before you broke my heart."
"Well I'm trying to explain!"
"There's nothing to explain!" Lian shrieks angrily, her anger bubbling over as she pounds her fists violently against his back. "You led me on to believe you actually cared about me! That you still loved me, and wanted to get back together! But you didn't! You just lured me into your bed so you could fuck me and get your horny needs out of the way," she spits angrily.
"Lian, that's not—"
"No, I am not done talking," she hisses, jabbing her knee into his chest hard enough for him to put her down. "That was the most humiliating morning of my life! I thought the whole time that it was special, that it wasn't just meaningless sex, but no. No, you just had to prove that all wrong, didn't you? Well you know what, Amistad Augustus Ervin? Fuck you. You weren't even a good lay," she snarls, resisting the urge to punch him again and storming away.
Lian doesn't make it far until he shoves her against the wall again, and he makes sure to corner and block every form of attack she could possibly have coming to him. The two glare at each other, both panting, sweat dripping down Lian's face, and fury in her eyes.
"You will listen to me," he warns. "You and I are not leaving this training room until you hear what I have to say. I don't care if I have to chain you up and fight you until we're both bruised, but I will talk, and you will give me a chance. It might take all night, but I have time."
Lian blows her bangs out of her eyes, sneering at him. "And why on earth should I give you a chance?"
"Because despite everything you say, you and I both know that love does not just disappear overnight," he says calmly. "And I know you well enough to know that you're dying to know why I did it. You want answers, just as much as you want revenge. So you'll get answers. The easier way would be if you just shut your big mouth and listen." Amistad smirks, cocking his head to the side. "But we both know you're not too good at… keeping quiet," he says, and Lian could just kill him.
He takes her silence as means to go on. "Do I have to keep shoving you into walls, or will you behave now?" Lian takes a few moments, but she nods, her eyes never losing their steely glint. Amistad lets go of her wrists and she slides down to sit, looking down at the floor. He clears his throat, unsure where to start.
"You know, for years, I always admired you, because I thought you were brilliant," he begins, pacing the floor. "Smartest kid in the school. Skipped two grades. Could go to the best college now if she wanted to." Amistad stops pacing and looks at her.
"But you're a fucking idiot if you thought that night meant nothing more than another lay." Lian raises her head and looks at him.
"I didn't mean to say what I did. It just… came out, at the wrong time. When we broke up, I didn't want it to hurt our friendship. I didn't want it to affect the team. Every time we go on a mission, I worry for your safety." She tried to cut in but he glared at her, refusing.
"I know. You can look out for yourself, more than anyone else I've ever known. But it doesn't stop me from worrying. Can you imagine how much worse it would be if we were still together? Every time we go on a mission, it would affect our success. I would kill every man or woman that tried to lay a hand on you," he swears darkly.
"We've been friends since we were babies. I had to end whatever we had before I found some way to ruin that, despite.. how much I didn't want to," he said softly. "I have loved you since you were ten years old. I neverstopped loving you and.. God, Lian, I never will," he said, looking at her.
"How could I stop loving the best thing in my life? When we dated, it was the happiest two years of my life. I didn't mean to sleep with you.. I.. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to, I've wanted to for a long.. really long time," he stammers, turning a faint shade of pink, biting his lip like he always did when he was nervous. "I guess I just forgot my.. better judgement, and for one night I let my desire take over.. and it happened," he concludes, scratching the back of his neck.
"Waking up with you in my arms hadn't felt more right, and yet.. it felt wrong. Because I knew that I should not have done it. I should not have let it happen. I said that we weren't back together because.. because we should not be together, Lian! I don't want to.. mess up and.. lose you," he says, hanging his head.
Amistad is silent after, and Lian decides that he is done speaking. She stands and stands in front of him, raising a brow. "I don't think I've ever hated you more than I do right now," she says harshly. Amistad should have been offended. He probably should have been crushed that his whole speech had been crushed in one sentence. Instead, he grabs her and slams his lips against hers. He's not surprised to find that she responds eagerly.
He lifts her so her legs are wrapped around his torso, guiding them so that they leaned against the wall. One of his hands cup her face, the other rests on her hip, his thumb tracing small circles in her flesh. Lian pulls away, her eyes half-lidded, both confused, angry, and lustful at the same time.
"I hate you." Amistad chuckles and runs a hand through her hair, playing with the long strands. "This changes nothing." He hums, kissing her jaw and then her collarbone, aware when her body tenses and arches into him.
"So, whose house are we going to? Or are we going to make love in the middle of the floor?" he asks smoothly.
"Oh, is that what it is now? Making love? I thought it was mindless fucking."
"Careful," he chastises, kissing her again. "Wouldn't want Daddy to hear his baby girl speak that way," he mocks with a grin.
"Shut the fuck up and make love to me already."