"Well," Carmilla thought," at least she'll be a distraction and I could really use one of those..." She forced a smile and turned to Kirsh; "She'll need... a mouth guard, kids large... gloves, women's small... and shin guards..."

"Wait..." Laura interrupted, "I have my own gear..."

"Do you now?" Carmilla replied and reached for Laura's bag. "Let's see what you've got..." she said as she began taking things out and laid them on the counter. "Hope you kept the receipt..."

"Why? Isn't it a good brand?" Laura asked.

"It's not bad," Carmilla replied; "but none of this will fit you properly and it's way overpriced..." she replied as she put everything back in the bag. "Besides... if manage to last five minutes this stuff comes with the job..."

"But..." Laura picked up the gloves Kirsh had put on the counter; "this stuff is way more than I..."

"If I don't hire you..." Carmilla shrugged; "I need a second set for myself anyway..."

"You'll learn pretty quick when not to argue with her," Kirsh interrupted before Laura had a chance to object further.

"A lesson you still haven't learned," Carmilla teased him.

"Oh I know," he laughed; "But it's fun pissing you off..."

"Careful what you wish for..." she warned as she waved Laura towards the back of the gym.

"Is this a regulation octagon?" Laura asked as they passed it.

"Yup," Carmilla replied proudly; "Got it last week..." she turned and walked backwards as she continued; "I want this place to be somewhere someone can come and have a really good work out or train for an actual fight..."

"You talk like you own it," Laura said with a smile.

Carmilla stopped and studied her a moment; was there a chance this girl had no clue who she was?

"Well I do," she replied finally; "Kirsh's dad gave it to me for my twenty-first birthday... but technically I co-own it with Kirsh..." she studied her a moment longer; "Where do I know you from?"

"I... you... you saw me?" Laura stammered and blushed her reddest yet; "Oh Merlin, you probably think I'm a creepy stalker or something..."

"What are you talking about?" Carmilla asked, trying not to laugh at the girl's discomfort.

"I saw you a couple of weeks ago..." Laura started; "Kirsh's fight?"

Carmilla thought back and smiled... yes, she remembered her now... she'd been cornering Kirsh's fight when she spotted Laura over his shoulder and completely lost her ability to speak. She'd managed to give him some sort of advice, which seemed to work, as he'd won... to be honest she couldn't remember the rest of the fight... all she could think about was the girl in the stands and she could have sworn she felt her eyes on her the whole time... unfortunately she'd lost track of her after the fight and hadn't thought anything more of it.

"So how did you end up here?" Carmilla asked as she watched, and approved of, the way Laura was wrapping her wrists.

"Well my friend, LaFontaine, dragged me to the fight and a few days later they saw an ad for your gym and they were teasing me that I should check it out..." Laura seemed to concentrate even harder as she worked on her wraps; "And then I saw the ad for a sparring partner and I knew you might be here but I didn't know it was you I'd be sparring with or that this... oh god... wait... you're not that Carmilla Karnstien, are you?"

"And there we have it ladies and gentlemen..." Carmilla said sarcastically; "Might be an all time record..." she shook her head sadly; "You know my name, Cupcake, and maybe you think you know my story from the papers... but let me assure you... you don't know me or even a fraction of the truth..."

There was a very good reason Carmilla didn't venture far from home... her mother and the lies she'd spread when she ran away. The longer they stayed away the wilder and weirder the stories got. Her mother had done everything possible to discredit her... trying to find any way to deny her trust fund. Bob had put an end to that: he applied for, and became, her and her brother's legal guardian. Her mother had tried to twist that too. In the end Bob's lawyer, who was actually her father's lawyer, put an end to all of it and her mother was forced to leave them alone. She still couldn't claim her money until she was twenty-one, but at least she no longer lived in fear.

But what all that meant is everyone in Vancouver knew her name and thought they knew her story. Sometimes she thought of leaving, starting over somewhere new, but then she realized it was a far better punishment for her mother if she stayed and proved her wrong at every turn.

"Should I go?" Laura asked uncertainly.

"No..." Carmilla sighed, it wasn't Laura's fault she'd hit a nerve or that she was already raw from something that had nothing to do with her; "I'm sorry... I'm just Carmilla, okay?"

"Um... for the record... I didn't know that when I came here..." Laura stammered as she pulled on her gloves; "like I said, I saw the shirt you were wearing... I thought maybe you worked or trained here..."

"So you did come here hoping to see me?" Carmilla said, blushing a little herself.

"Maybe..."

"You won't need the mouth guard yet," Carmilla interrupted as she tried to get the situation back into familiar territory; "I'm just going to have you hit some pads to warm up before we spar..."

"But that will take more than five minutes..."

"True," Carmilla agreed; "but if I don't like what I see with the pads we won't bother sparring..." she led her over to the octagon and waved her inside. She threw her own gloves aside and slipped the pads onto her hands. She held them up and smiled; "Don't hit them too hard to start with... I want to evaluate your form..." she said as she took the time to appreciate that Laura had, at some point without her noticing, removed her baggy sweats and now wore tight shorts and a black tank top; "and then we'll see how hard you hit..." she said, her voice somehow steady despite the new fluttering in her stomach.

Over the next fifteen minutes Carmilla found herself feeling guilty for ever having prejudged Laura... yes, she made a few corrections to her form, but really, she had more of the basics than she expected.

"Okay... start hitting with all you've got," she instructed.

After only a few punches Carmilla waved her off as she could no longer contain her giggles.

"What?" Laura asked.

"You..." Carmilla started, shaking her head and laughing; "you hit a lot harder than I expected but..." she grabbed at a stitch in her side; "you looked like a pissed off Pomeranian and just about as hard to take seriously..." Laura looked crestfallen; "No... no sweetness... we need to work on your game face, that's all..." she stepped in front of her; "No really... you have potential and Laura?" She knew using her name would get her attention and she looked up; "I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time... thanks..."

"You're welcome?"

"Now we spar..." Carmilla said as she stepped back; "Mouth guard in..." she smiled as Laura looked a little worried; "Don't worry... I'm not going to hit you... we go at half speed and we don't really hit each other... not hard anyway..."

"I've sparred before..." Laura said defensively.

"Alright then..." Carmilla replied and looked over to Kirsh; "Hit the timer!" she yelled to him and turned back to Laura as they waited for him to jog over. "Let's see what you got..."

The timer sounded and they spent the next minute circling each other, neither willing to engage. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know how to attack," Laura replied, slightly muffled by her mouth guard; "I always fight back..."

"Okay..." Carmilla smiled; "then fight back..." she growled as she rushed her. A flurry of punches that stopped just short of her face and midsection and Laura finally fought back... unfortunately she had yet to learn how to pull her punches and connected with a hard uppercut to Carmilla's chin and sent her flying backwards onto her ass.

"Oh god... I'm so sorry..."

"What part of..." Carmilla spat out her mouth guard; "of not really hitting did you miss?"

"You scared me and I reacted," Laura said, her eyes glistening.

Carmilla stared at her... she looked like she was about to cry she was so upset.

"It's okay, Creampuff, you caught me, that's all..." Carmilla said, trying to console her; "It was bound to happen eventually..."

"Does that..." Laura sniffed; "does that mean I get the job?"

"You really want it?" Carmilla asked.

Laura looked up, and biting her lower lip, nodded.

"I have a fight in six weeks and the training is going to be intense," she said, she had no idea why Laura wanted to do this but she didn't want to question it. Not yet anyway. Maybe she was seeing something that wasn't there; she did seem to have a bad habit of that... but what if she wasn't? She mentally shrugged. She needed a sparring partner... yes, Laura was a little small but she was strong and fast and she could work with that. But, she needed to know what she was signing up for. "It's a really important fight for me... as long as I do well I might get a shot at the next season of the Ultimate Fighter..."

"Define intense..." Laura said, a bit uncertainly.

"I want you to train alongside me for the next few weeks..." Carmilla started as she led her from the cage and towards the nearby juice bar. "What flavor?" she asked as she pulled a sports drink from the fridge for herself.

"Green, whatever green is," Laura replied, blushing again.

"How's your availability?"

"I'm sorry?" Laura stammered.

"How much time do you have to work with me," Carmilla rephrased.

"I'm pretty much all yours for the summer," Laura replied and blushed deeply as she realized what she'd said; "Um... classes are over and I don't feel like going home for the summer but I told my Dad I have a job and that's why I'm staying on campus for the summer and..." she took a deep breath; "I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"A little..." Carmilla replied with a laugh; "My schedule is cardio and strength training three days a week with one of those days being a high-ish altitude run..."

"Where do you run?" Laura interrupted.

"Buntzen lake, the Grouse Grind..." Carmilla shrugged; "Sometimes I head up to Whistler for a few days..." she looked down at her fingers a moment and back up; "You don't have to join me for those if you don't want..." she smiled; "and then two days of fight training... sometimes it's wrestling, others, boxing... whoever is around really..."

"You don't have set trainers?" Laura asked.

"Yes but they don't have set schedules," she replied. "Most days it's pretty quiet... we get the before work crowd from six to ten and the after work crowd from six to ten..." she looked around the mostly empty gym; "That crowd pays the bills but the rest of the time it's fighters mainly... how busy it is depends on how many of them have fights coming up..." she looked back to Laura; "I want you to train with me for the first couple of weeks so you'll be a better sparring partner... think you're up for it?"

"I'd like to try," Laura replied.

"Then go return that gear," Carmilla said, businesslike once more; "Then I want you to go home, take a hot bath, stretch, take a couple of ibuprofen, and get some rest..."

"Yes ma'am," Laura replied with a mock salute.

"Hey, listen to me," Carmilla said, her tone softening; "There are few things I know a lot about and training is one of them..." she smiled; "There's a reason my gym is popular outside of the fighting crowd... we know how to train so we don't hurt ourselves..." she smiled again; "I need you healthy, Cupcake, you're no use to me if you're all stiff and sore tomorrow..."

"Oh c'mon, we barely..." Laura started defensively.

"But we did things your body isn't used to," Carmilla blushed very deeply and dipped her head. "Oh my god, I really just said that!" She thought. "You'll be sore... trust me..." she said as she regained her composure and looked up. "Ten tomorrow morning?" She asked.

"Sure..." Laura smiled; "Sorry bout the chin..."

"Don't worry, Cupcake..." Carmilla smiled mischievously; "payback's a bitch though..."