A/N: Swearing, Adult language.
She couldn't pinpoint why she had feelings for him. She told herself that it just happened, but always, nothing in Lisbeth's life had ever "Just happened" Paranoia drove her to take self defence classes. There were always more guys than girls. Surprisingly it was one of the few places Lisbeth felt safe. The guys all had families and girlfriends of their own. Kickboxing classes were the same. Except the guys were bigger and a bigger ego came along with those bigger bodies. "Swerve your hips" Kevin said. Kevin was an asshole and he enjoyed touching the few girls that came. "Back off" Lisbeth heard a girl called Miriam say. "Why?" Kevin asked. "A real man needs to save you from getting your ass kicked" He nudged her breast with his shoulder and she sweeped his legs from under him and left him collapsed on the mat.
Kevin was ready to take Miriam on but was taken away by Paolo. After a few lingering looks and Miriam's impressive smiles at watching her practise, they ended up at Lisbeth's apartment. "How long have you been fighting?" Miriam asked. "Not long" Lisbeth said. "You?" She asked. "Six months...are you staying?" Miriam asked. "Yeah...I guess...Paolo's a good teacher" "So am I" Miriam said. "I could teach you things" Lisbeth assumed they were still talking about boxing techniques but within a month Miriam was staying over regularly. None of the guys knew about it and Lisbeth enjoyed being with Miriam in every way. She had no reason to feel guilty about it until Nate Diaz joined the club.
At six feet tall and one hundred and fifty-five pounds, Nate was slim and wiry. With a ruthless physical determination that was contagious and affected everyone around him. As soon as Lisbeth looked at him she knew that her physical relationship with Miriam was over. "Punching?" She asked him one morning. Nate was always the first one at the gym putting the mats out and making sure the boxing gloves were still in stock. "Depends what hand you use" Nate said wiping the mats down with a soapy cloth. "Wanna spar?" He asked. Lisbeth could tell Nate was going easy on her and she wanted to be treated the same as the guys. On the other hand it showed that he respected her enough to go easy on her. Most of the guys at the training centre were pumped, pissed off, ready to take her head off. A few guys didn't realise that Lisbeth was a girl. The short hair and sour attitude confused them.
"You box for a living?" She asked. "Kinda" Nate said, drying the mats. "I'm in MMA...it's...like...fucking...full on" Nate said as more of the guys came in and Nate focused on them instead. Lisbeth found it hard to fit in with the other guys apart from Nate, and Miriam wasn't giving her the time of day out of jealousy. The only thing that made her feel better was getting her cheque in her hands. She went to the offices to see her Guardian Kris. She was a clumsy overweight judgemental woman who was never organised. "I didn't know you were coming today" Kris said. "I can wait" Lisbeth said. "You'll have to wait until tomorrow" She said. "Why?" Lisbeth asked. "I didn't put your reports though. "I've been so busy lately" "I need that money" Lisbeth said. "You'll get it..just not today" Kris said raising her eyebrows and Lisbeth left before she could feel a tantrum taking over.
"Fuck!" She mouthed as she pressed the elevator door. The doors opened and there stood Nate with a cheque that Lisbeth dreamed of between his fingertips. "Hey" Nate said Lisbeth grunted and the lift took them down. "You get what you came for?" Nate asked. "That is what I came for and...no" Lisbeth said pointing at the cheque. "It sucks when you don't get it" Nate said. "I'd buy you coffee...but...I can't spend any of this" Nate said putting the cheque in his pocket. He ended up making her cheap home-made coffee at his apartment. They skirted around the issue of why they had controlled cheques and Lisbeth noticed two sets of clothing hung up on hooks.
"You live alone?" She asked. "Nah...with my brother...he got me into MMA in the first place" Nate said turning the television on. "What does he do?" She asked. "Fight" Nate said. "We both do" Nate said. Lisbeth nodded. "Will he come to train?" Lisbeth asked. "Nah...you're stuck with me" Nate said. Lisbeth pretended to sulk and he smiled at her. She hadn't seen Nate smile often and would keep his smile in her head when she went back to her apartment...alone. Before Nate could offer her a biscuit, the door opened and Lisbeth got up. "You don't have to go" Nate said getting up as the door opened wider. Lisbeth walked out of the visitor's vision as a tall guy around Nate's height and build walked through the door with a rucksack.
"This is Nick...my brother" Nate said as Lisbeth walked straight through the door without a goodbye. "She's umm...shy" Nate said taking the cheque out of his pocket and putting it on the wooden table. "Whatever" Nick said with a shrug. "She trains at the camp too" Nate explained. "We even get our cheques from the same place...it's on the table" Nate said as his brother walked to the table and nodded. "Just don't...tell her shit" Nick said. "I ain't" Nate said as his brother went to get changed. Lisbeth felt uncomfortable around Nate's brother. She didn't know why, it was just a feeling that she didn't like.
Seeing Nate today had been worth it. She wanted to know more about his story, why he was here and where he was fighting next. She looked as much information up as she could on both Nate and his brother Nick. When it came to fighting Nick had more experience, but overall Nate had more wins. Nick trained at a camp quite far away, so she hoped that if she ever set foot in Nate's apartment, he'd be there alone. "Why didn't you say hi?" Nate asked, when they were doing exercises the following day in the training centre side by side. "I wasn't welcome...I had to go" Lisbeth said.
"You can come over whenever...really" Nate said as he gave her shoulder a friendly tap. Lisbeth began jogging so she could explain the redness of her cheeks. She got a water on her break and stared as a blonde barbie came into the club. She didn't belong there. She was in a bright pink jacket with orange expensive trainers. She was waving at Nate and screeching at him like a drunk flamingo. Lisbeth turned away as Nate squeezed the girl's shoulders. She hoped that the girl was his sister, or God forbid his manager. Lisbeth was planning to sneak away tagging along with Paolo's group when Nate called her over.
"Lisbeth don't run this time...this is Carmel" Nate said. "It's our anniversary today" Carmel said looking at Lisbeth in glee. "Great" Lisbeth murmured, turning away. Nate wondered what had crawled up Lisbeth's ass but he couldn't worry about that as his girlfriend expected to be taken out. He didn't have much money so he'd have to lie. Carmel watched Nate train, but Lisbeth was relieved when break-time was over and Carmel had to leave for work. Every guy in the room couldn't take their eyes off of Carmel. They all assumed that she was a model.
"I'm one lucky guy right?" Nate asked Lisbeth as Carmel said her last goodbye and the all the men sighed, missing her before she'd set one foot outside the training centre.
"Lucky is one way to put it" Lisbeth said as she decided to spar with Paolo this time only to pretend that he was Carmel without the cheap jacket, hideous trainers, and ridiculous high-pitched voice.