"That's enough, Talia."
Ra's al Ghul spoke to his daughter from the corner of the dark training room, stepping into the little stream of light that came from the small window.
Talia pulled herself off of the young male initiate with whom she was training. He was weak, she thought ruefully to herself. Talia had overpowered him so quickly and effectively that it had not been helpful to either of them. She'd gotten no useful fighting practice from the experience of beating the young man into oblivion.
She knew her father was hesitant to pair her with his best fighters. As much as Ra's al Ghul wanted his daughter Talia to be tough and strong, he disliked seeing her in the infirmary with a dislocated shoulder. That had happened months ago, though, Talia thought with a sigh. Since then, Ra's had made Talia practice with opponents far weaker than she, and Talia did not feel she was getting much out of her training anymore.
Later that evening, Ra's al Ghul sent for Talia, and she cleaned herself up enough to go see him. She stepped into the quiet room that held a dining table big enough for twenty, which looked out upon a courtyard painted by the orange and purple of the setting sun.
"Father," she nodded as she entered, folding her hands demurely in front of her and waiting for him to speak.
Ra's jumped straight to his reason for meeting with Talia. He was not one for small talk. "Your shoulder appears to have healed enough for you to resume intense training," he said, clasping his hands behind his back. Talia nodded again, pleased by his words. But then he continued, "Nonetheless, I am hesitant to see you suffer another serious injury. You need a sparring partner who will challenge you. One who will make you stronger. Yet he must know when to stop."
Talia stood silent before her father, not knowing quite how to respond to his words. Finally, she asked, "Do you have someone in mind?"
"I do." Ra's coursed his fingertips over the polished wood of the dining table. "Bane."
Talia felt her eyes go wide. Bane? She was to fight with him?
Talia had been ten years old when she had escaped from the Pit. Less than a year later, her father had retrieved Bane and had taken him into the League of Shadows, grateful for the man's devotion to protecting his daughter. But over the past six years, Ra's had been careful to keep a distance between Bane and Talia, allowing them only minimal contact and keeping a close eye on their interactions. He'd once explained his caution to Talia. Bane was too fierce and ferocious to be associated with a young girl. It wasn't good for Bane's training, and it wasn't good for Talia's well-being.
But Talia knew better. She knew that Bane had been her protector, her guardian, her only friend... for years. Even after he was fitted with a complicated mask to protect his scarred face and ease his pain, Talia knew no fear of him. She knew, instead, that the mask was there because of her. He'd endured indescribable suffering and had very nearly died, all for her. She lamented that her father kept her from him, for each time she saw Bane in passing, all she wanted to do was throw her arms around his waist and properly express her gratitude.
So, now, hearing that she was to be training with him, Talia's heart soared. She would see him every day. They would talk, they would eat together. Why the sudden change of heart by her father?
"Bane is the only one who cares enough to see that you train properly without getting seriously injured," Ra's al Ghul explained, answering Talia's unasked question. "You start with him in the morning."
Talia suppressed a wide grin. "Thank you, Father," she said softly. Ra's nodded and dismissed Talia, and she headed back to her room, which was separated from the male initiates' quarters for modesty.
She lay in her bed and stared at the ceiling above her, the silver light of the moon coming in milky and soft through the high window. She shut her eyes, trying to drift off to sleep, but her mind was plagued with his image. When at last Talia fell asleep, her dreams were of the past. Memories of the hellish life they'd known filled her sleep.
"Talia," Bane said gently, pulling shut the cell door behind him, "I don't want you sleeping by yourself in here anymore."
Ten-year-old Talia blinked blankly at him, searching his sea-foam green eyes. "Why not?" she asked, setting the Arabic text she was reading upon her lice-infested blanket.
Bane lowered his pale eyes and sighed. He was only twenty-five years of age, but he looked as ancient as the oldest prisoner in the Pit at the moment. His downward gaze appeared pained and conflicted.
"Someday you will understand more clearly," he began. "There are many reasons why a young girl ought not to be surrounded by lonely men."
Talia furrowed her brows and stared at Bane. "I'm safe with you, though, aren't I?" she asked, for his company was the only reassurance she had known in the months since her mother's death. She'd known of Bane for years, for his cell had been directly across from the one Talia had shared with her mother. On the day of her mother's murder by a ferocious mob, it had been Bane who had whisked Talia away from the chaos. Since that day, he had been the only one she trusted in the entire world.
"Of course you are safe with me," Bane nodded. "I will never hurt you. I will always keep you safe, Talia. That's why I don't want you alone, where I can't protect you."
Talia gave him a warm smile. That night would be the first of many in which she fell asleep cradled in Bane's arms, his steady breath and warm body lulling her into peaceful slumber. As tumultuous as life in the Pit was, the sleep Talia received enveloped in Bane's arms was the best she'd ever known. In the years since her rescue, beds had proven inhospitable. Never again had Talia slept as deeply as she had in Bane's embrace.
It was the only place she felt truly safe.
"Good morning, Talia."
Bane was beefier than Talia remembered him being. When they'd lived in the Pit, he had been strong, but terribly lean as a result of hunger. It didn't help that he often gave half of his food to Talia every day. He was thin no more, though; now his thick muscles flexed with every step as he stalked slowly into the training room. Talia stood before him, clad in a cotton tunic and loose fitting pants. Bane wore more tightly fitted trousers, and his torso was bare except for the sturdy brace that kept his back straight and working. Talia eyed his back brace with a twinge of regret. His injuries had all happened while he helped her escape. The mask, the braces, the scars – they were all Talia's burden to bear.
And, yet, Bane did not look too terribly worse for the wear overall. He'd built himself up to a muscular mass of strength, formidable and intimidating. The last time Talia had seen Bane, two weeks earlier as she'd walked back to her room from training, he'd had a tunic on. His sea-foam green eyes had wrinkled in such a way that Talia knew he was smiling at her under the mask. He had always seemed happy to see Talia, though their conversations had been brief and shallow over the past six years.
"Your father tells me that you need a stronger partner. Have you grown that strong, little one?" Bane asked, his eyes twinkling in the slivers of light that wormed their way into the room. His voice was mechanical, filtered through the mask on his face. It was very different from how Talia remembered him sounding when he'd spoken to her years before. Nonetheless, the sound of his new voice sent shivers down her spine.
Talia grinned. "I'm fearsome, all right," she laughed. "I don't want you to let me win."
"And I do not wish to break all the bones in your body," Bane replied. "We shall gauge one another and take it from there. I want you to try your hardest today. Do not fear injuring me."
It was almost a taunt, a firm doubt that she'd be able to hurt him even if she tried. Talia's lips flattened into a line and her eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Let's just see," she said, annoyed. Bane's eyes twinkled again. He'd always loved to tease her, even when she'd been a child in the Pit. "Ready?" she asked, and Bane nodded, steeling himself for her attack.
Talia charged, flinging her leg up diagonally to aim a kick at Bane's chest. He reacted more quickly than she thought possible, deflecting her kick in such a way that she tumbled to the floor. She rose immediately, drawing her fist back for a punch. Bane grasped her wrist and thrust her arm away from him. Talia knew he could have snapped her wrist and broken it easily, but instead he merely pushed her away.
Irritated that he was holding back, Talia puffed out air and tried again. She rushed him again, intending to punch his pectoral muscle, but once more Bane grabbed her wrist. His grip was more painful this time, and Talia grunted. He bent down to push her with his shoulder, and Talia struggled to maintain her balance. As she wobbled, Bane swept his strong arm behind her and tripped her up so that she toppled to the ground. Before she could rise off of her back, Bane was atop her, his arms ensnaring hers in a lock. Talia clasped her legs around his waist tightly and squeezed hard to force him to release her. Bane grunted but managed to disentangle himself from her body. He pinned her to the ground and thrust her wrists above her head. His knee pressed firmly on Talia's thighs. She struggled against him, trying desperately to wrench her wrists from the tight grip of his beefy hands. She squirmed and tried to pull free from his leg. It was to no avail. Bane was the strongest man she'd ever fought, and he was overwhelming her with brute force. She felt the ties come loose from her hair, and her dark curls surrounded her face as she thrashed back and forth.
Bane stared down at Talia, and when she looked back up at him, she expected to see the same knowing twinkle that his eyes had held earlier. She giggled as she scrapped against him, finally meeting his gaze. Her laughter fell silent when she saw the burn in his pale eyes. His breath came quick and shallow through the mask, much quicker than Talia would have thought necessary given how little he'd exerted himself. His eyes seared hers with a searching fear. Talia frowned and stopped struggling.
"What's wrong?" she asked, confused when Bane suddenly pulled himself off of her body and stood.
Bane cleared his throat and turned away from Talia. "I… do not think I am the best sparring partner for you, Talia."
Talia heaved herself to her feet, silently agreeing with him based on how sore he'd managed to make her with just a few moves.
"I'll get stronger, Bane," she promised. "You have to keep challenging me. Let's go again."
"No." Bane's voice was firm and unyielding, as it had been when he'd scolded her as a child. He put his hands on his hips and stared at the ground, shaking his head.
"I know you don't want to hurt me," Talia said softly, "but you're the best one to help me become a better fighter."
"You don't understand, Talia." She could hear the agony in his voice, and he raised his gaze to the small window, staring intently at the world outside.
Talia narrowed her eyes and crinkled her brow. She crossed her arms angrily. "Well, what's wrong, then?" she asked accusatorily. She stared at Bane and saw how his chest heaved - whether from exertion or emotion, she could not say.
His muscles were enormous; Talia had never seen a man built the way Bane was. She'd fought dozens of initiates over the last three years of her training, some female but most of them men. She had never encountered a sparring partner who could take her down with such ease. She certainly had never fought anyone who seemed to know her so well, who seemed to anticipate her moves as though their fight was an expertly played game of chess. Now, she took a moment to survey Bane's physique and realized she had never fought anyone so handsome.
Sure, the mask obscured his face, and Talia knew his once-chiseled features were ruined beneath the contraption. But the way his eyes shone with the color of the sea, the way his body stood as solid as a stone wall, the way his muscles rippled when he fought…
Talia felt a strange and foreign warmth pulse throughout her body, intensifying when she thought back to how he'd stared so intensely at her as he pinned her down. Usually, when Talia was pinned down by an opponent, she felt nothing but anger and motivation to try harder. But when she'd seen the blistering heat in Bane's eyes, she had been pushed to complete submission. Her tensed muscles had eased beneath his touch. She had felt a bit as though she were melting inside, completely acquiescent to his gaze and touch. She'd never felt that way about an opponent before, and it was strange and new in a slightly frightening way.
She wondered what Bane had been feeling while he'd been atop her, looking down at her struggling, giggling form. Perhaps, Talia thought, Bane was not comfortable fighting her, the one for whom he'd cared and the one he'd sworn to protect.
"I'm no longer a child, Bane," Talia said indignantly, and Bane shut his eyes as he nodded slowly.
"I can see that," he replied, and suddenly Talia understood.
It had been too close, too intimate, for him to touch her that way. They had slept with their bodies entangled, but that had been when he was protecting her. He'd been keeping her warm, keeping her safe. Now that she was a young woman and he a man, it was no longer appropriate to be so familiar. The thought of such distance between herself and her former guardian made Talia abruptly quite sad. She had hoped that these fights would mean their reconnection. Instead, she now feared that they would mean the demise of her closeness with Bane.
Talia's sapphire blue eyes welled with thick tears, and she swiped angrily at them.
"My father wanted you to fight with me," she prompted him, "because he thought that would be best."
"I think he was mistaken," Bane insisted, folding his arms over his substantial chest and turned away from her. "This… this arrangement, Talia, is not suitable."
"You don't wish to be around me," Talia accused, nodding her head knowingly. Bane whirled to face Talia, his arms flying to form tight fists at his sides. His eyes flashed with fury.
"I want nothing more than to be near you, Talia," he assured her, "but not like this. Not with limbs tangled, bodies pressed against each other…" He sighed shakily and shook his head no as if convincing himself as much as her.
"There was a time when our bodies rested against one another every night," Talia reminded him quietly, taking a step to close the gap between them and pressed her palm to his trembling chest. Bane flinched beneath her touch as if she'd burned him, and Talia hesitantly pulled her hand from him. "Do you not remember nights where you kept me warm and shared a cot with me?"
"You were a child, Talia," Bane said firmly. "It's different now."
"It doesn't have to be," Talia insisted, staring into his eyes. "Why can't you be my friend, my protector, once more?"
Bane shook his head resolutely and took another quivering breath that rattled through the mask. When he spoke, his words echoed the past. "Someday you will understand more clearly. There are many reasons why a young woman should not be so near a man who cares for her."
He stepped backwards, away from Talia, leaving her feeling confused and rejected in the middle of the training room. He turned away and continued walking to the door.
"This was a mistake," he contended again. "In the morning, I shall speak with your father and help him find you a more suitable opponent."
The tears that had welled in Talia's eyes spilled over and tumbled silently down her cheeks. As the door closed behind Bane, she wanted to scream in frustration. Her hopes of a happy reunion with her old friend had been dashed, ruined by her new, womanly figure that seemed to bring Bane such discomfort. She longed in that instant to be a child again, so that he would be her friend once more.
As she tossed and turned in her bed that night, Talia growled with anger. She was more cross with Bane now that she'd had time to ponder the situation. There had to be a way to convince him to continue fighting her, even if it meant overcoming a big of awkwardness. She needed to be near him. That had become more evident than ever today.
Talia rose from her bed and wrapped a kimono-style silk robe around her lean frame. She slipped silently from her room and shut the door softly behind her. She crept down the hallway as surreptitiously as she could, the pale moonlight illuminating her path toward the men's dormitories.
She had to convince Bane to change his mind before he met with her father in the morning.
A/N: Hello! This is intended to be a long Balia story. I'm going to shoot for at least 50,000 words as long as it seems like people are reading and enjoying it. If you'd be so kind as to leave a review and let me know what you think, I'd be very appreciative. Thank you so much for reading!