Winter stormed back into the Hub. How could he? She thought they were friends, friends told each other stuff. Crushes, funny stories, immortality status. Pip jumped onto her shoulder as she grabbed a hair band and pulled her hair into a ponytail. She entered the shooting range and pulled off her jacket. Pip scampered over to the wall and pulled the sword from the wall, dragging it over to her before heading for the table to sit in safety.
A brief warm up led on to her normal routine but it was no good. She was angry, she needed an opponent, someone to fight back. With a scream of frustration she span around and brought the sword crashing down. A loud clang reverberated around the cavernous room as metal hit metal. 'Nemo.' Jack pulled back his weapon and relaxed a little as her heavy breathing caught. Suddenly her brain sparked into action and she thrust the sword towards him. He looked surprised but brought his own up to meet hers. She'd found her partner.
The furious glare she had fixed him with worried him. She hadn't been this angry for a long while, no amount of lollies would fix this, he'd have to talk it out. Her blows were more frantic than usual, less thought out. They were easier to foresee but more forceful so harder to fend of. Sweat was dripping from her forehead and her face contorted with rage and sadness. He was tired of this and she looked ready to faint so he ended it. He grassed her sword at the hilt and dropped his own, taking her hand in his and forcing her into the wall. 'I'm sorry.' She seemed to crumble, tears formed in her eyes and he moved his hands to her waist to stop her sliding to the floor.
'You can't die.' She repeated quietly, so quietly he only just heard it.
'no.' she took in a shaky breath and steadied herself. Out of courtesy he let go of her waist and backed off a little. Without another word Winter picked up her sword and replaced it in the scabbard on the wall before turning to leave. 'Please talk to me.' She turned on her heel and clenched her jaw.
'Like what?' she shouted, 'Oh that's fine, Jack. All those times I've worried about you not coming back, all those times I've talked to you about how I was scared of having to cope without you! You had so many chances to tell me and you let me suffer! I never expected you to tell me everything, God knows I haven't, but something like that?' she shook her head, 'I'll talk to you again when you give me reason to trust you again.' Jack flinched at her words and watched her go. He looked at the monkey on the table and sat next to him.
'Yet again I screw up trying not to screw up. When am I gonna get it right Pip?' He looked down at the capuchin who was picking tiny particles of dirt from him stomach hair. The little creature looked up at him at his name and stared blankly. 'yeah that's what I thought.'