I arrived at that building the next day with a bag slung over my shoulder and an annoyed Swiss boy on my heels. Vash had visited me early in the morning when Ivan and Kat were gone, and I explained to him that if I could make it in this business, I could make the money for my family and not have to have a piece of paper to prove my worth. And I had a score to settle with a certain red-head- But I left that part out. I entered the building by picking the lock once again and walked past the German man, who did not look up or ask questions about the blonde on my heels. I looked around, before back tracking. "Ludwig, I need to change into some clothes. Where can I do that?" I asked, ignoring Vash's pouting as Ludwig showed me to the shower rooms with all the lockers. There were a few boys sitting around in their boxers, and a couple jumped up and blushed when I walked in. It was fairly entertaining. I found an empty bench and sat my bag down and kicked off my heels, but my skirt was pulled back down when I began to take off my stockings. I looked at Vash with irritation. "What is your problem, Vash? I change in front of you and Lili all the time."
"Yes, but Lili and I know you! You don't know these guys, Natalia!" He barked back, and I noted that his face was red with annoyance. I rolled my eyes and continued to undress, ignoring the eyes that looked at me. "I'm a human. It's just a body, and not one that's too impressive, either. If I wanted to show anything off, I'd have brought Lili. They'd drool over her the same way I drooled on her." I slipped a pair of old green shorts on and rolled them once, noting that they were just big enough. Lili was smaller than me, so I couldn't do the usual "three rolls for comfort" in her shorts. I put on one of her old tank tops and pulled my hair back, too, before putting on a pair of Vash's socks. I don't know where I'd be without them to give me clothes like this. As we all sat in the shower rooms, more and more people began to arrive, and I was sure my presence made them a bit uncomfortable when they changed. I guess the fact that I was mainly focused on Vash's complaining helped, though, because no one made a comment or complaint. The boss walked in about an hour after we'd all arrived, and I found it odd that I couldn't bring myself to look at him. It was probably due to how much I really disliked him that his changing made me uncomfortable. When he was done, he called us to attention and pointed at me, curling his pointer finger inwards and out, motioning for me to go to him. I rolled my eyes in annoyance and walked forward, glaring at the Scot as he smirked at me. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and leaned against my body, causing me to grunt and nearly fall from the added weight. The men in the room laughed, which in turn caused a glare to form on not only my face but Vash's, too.
"Alrighty, boys. This is Natalia Arlovksaya. She's a Belarusian and she's gonna come train with us." He chuckled, pinching my cheek and tugging it a bit before I slapped his hand away. I crossed my arms and twirled the end of my ponytail, glaring at Vash, who understood that I was ready to hurt this man beside me. One of the boys stood up and grabbed my chin, twisting my face back and forth as he examined me. He had dark blonde hair and blue eyes, and he wore squared off glasses. "Wow, boss! You finally let a girl in and she has to be so pretty!" His accent was surely American, and I later learned his name was Alfred F. Jones, and he was obsessed with being the hero. Boss lead me by my shoulders out of the shower room to the training room, and nearly pushed me onto one of the blue mats on the floor. I turned around with my pocketknife in my hand, but he made a tsk sound and shook his head. "Get on te floor, Natalia. You're gonna do fifty crunches. T' work te muscles in yer abdomen." He explained as he rested his hand on my stomach, but after a moment the smirk turned into a frown and he lifted the hem of my shirt just below my chest. I smacked his hand away and pulled it back down, giving him a glare with intention of murder. "I thought ye said ye were poor? Yer all muscle…" He mumbled at me as I sat on the floor and laid my hands behind my head. I began the crutches furiously, finishing within five minutes, hardly sweating. "She and I do this kinda stuff all the time. We have to stay in shape for when we-" "Vash!" I shouted, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "You don't need to go telling every person you meet my business. " I pushed him from me, irritated with how he was going to blurt out that we were thieves! "Go back to Lili. She'll get worried if one of us doesn't come home. Tell her I'll visit her when I'm done… At work." He nodded his head, understanding that I figured it better if he were to let me handle this on my own. I didn't want someone like him, or someone like Lili to get involved in my problems. Boss led me to one of the large bags that hung from the ceiling and took my fist in his hand and adjusted the position of my fingers and thumb, before stepping behind me, and forcing me to punch the bag. I winced from the pain that shot through my arm and shoulder, but I kept my face angry. Anger kept the pain at bay, as I've come to conclude over the years. He didn't make me hit it again, but dropped my arm and stepped away from behind me, leaving the room entirely. I turned back, and looked over at the boys who were staring at this odd picture of two moving enemies. When he came back in, he shoved me by my shoulders to sit on the ground and grabbed my hands and used this bandaging tape to wrap my fists, and then put pads against the knuckles. He did the same with my feet, too, which could have ended with me kicking him in his face. (I contemplated it.) But he was gentle when he was wrapping me up, so I decided it best not to start a fight. He stood up and held his hand out to help me up, but I was not going to accept his kindness. I stood on my own and ignored the gesture and flexed my fingers and toes. "Yer gonna punch that bag as hard, as fast, and as much as possible til te bell rings. Kick it, too. I just showed ye how t' throw a proper punch, ye can do te rest on yer own, lass." He said as he turned me by my shoulders to face the bag and walked away before I could make a comment. He blew a loud whistle, and suddenly all I heard was grunting and shouting and loud noises of men sacrificing their energy for that Scottish jerk. So I followed their lead and did so too. After I was done with the punching bag, I had to look around to ask whoever else was at my station what I was supposed to do. After that, I went to this thing called the peanut bag, where there was a huge blonde. He was probably taller than Ludwig, but he had blonde hair and blue eyes just like most of the people here. He also wore squared off glasses, but the look on his face was emotionless and almost scary. I followed his example of punching the bag as quickly as possible, jabbing it, actually. I sometimes missed, but I kept going until the whistle blew again, telling Berwald and I we needed to switch to some where we hadn't been. Next was where they tossed this ball between one another constantly, which actually looked kind of fun. A young boy with a tanned complexion and brown curls looked at me with a warm smile, and I noted he had emerald green eyes. "Hola, Senorita!" HE greeted, before tossing the ball to me. I held my hands up to catch it, but I nearly dropped it on my foot. "H-heavy…" I grunted as I had to use all my strength to throw it back at him. He chuckled. "Mio dio, senorita Natalia! You did not think it was going to be fun, did you?" I looked down at the ball as I latched onto it for security, keeping my eye on the time. I hadn't even realized it was almost eight.
Finally the last whistle blew, and we were released to go back and shower or change in the shower rooms. I was covered and slimy in sweat from all the working out, and they offered one of the three showers that had a curtain surrounding it. I thanked Alfred for offering it to me and shut the curtain as I stripped, turning on the water until it burned me. A thick mist covered the room and I could hear the others whistling, talking, laughing, shouting and joking around as men would do, but none addressed me. I was washing my hair thoroughly, until soap suds paraded down my arms and over my chest when I heard my name being shouted. I stuck an arm up and over the curtain so my hand was visible and gave a quick wave to show that I was busy, and began to rinse out my hair. I shut the water off, realizing most of the others were finished showering when I had been in there longer, and threw a towel around myself. I stepped out, and almost immediately was shoved back into the shower. "What the hell are you doing?" I shouted as the curtain was shut again and my bag was thrown over it.
"Get dressed in there, just get your undergarments on in there and then you can come out!" One of them yelled back, and I could tell from the way his voice faltered that he was embarrassed of my nudity. I rolled my eyes and threw my towel out, and slipped on my underpants and bra. They opened the curtain for me and I rolled my eyes, seeing as it was Alfred who had shoved me in. I sat down on the same spot that I had when I first arrived and grabbed my towel, and used it to ring my hair out. I then brushed it back and out of my face before I began to pat it dry. I hummed a bit, the lyrics of an old song Kat used to sing me when I was younger flitting through my mind until it was interrupted by the sound of a loud smack on skin and a yelp. I looked over instinctively before turning my head back. Of course that damned Scot was going to be walking around in just a towel! I lay my towel on the bench before grabbing my bag of clothes and found my stockings, and slipped them on quickly. Of course, as I buttoned up my dark blue blouse boss sat next to me on my bench and laughed. I inched myself away from him, uncomfortable with the few inches that separated us, and he only raised an eyebrow in question of me. I finished dressing myself before giving Ludwig a wave of good bye and left, holding my hand against my chest. I didn't really understand why my heart was thumping so much and so fast, but I could ask Lili about that when I got to her house.
Lili was brushing my hair as I told her about my "job" in the factory, which was run by a flaming haired Scot that really annoyed me.
"So we shower afterwards, he gives us a half hour off for that before we clock out. But you know what the problem is? It doesn't bother me that those guys are in there. It just bothers me when he's in the shower room. I just get really embarrassed and feel like hiding away, Lili! I dislike him that much." I was grouchy and irritated, and my ears were a similar shade of pink that was on my cheeks when I had to remember the scene in that shower room. It's not like it was one of those shameful embarrassments, but it did surprise me that it bothered me to see him, and it bothered me that he had seen me. I heard Lili breathe a giggle and put the brush down on the sofa next to her, and she wrapped her arms around my neck and laid her head atop mine.
"You'll learn what names belong to what emotions eventually, Natalia." She whispered into my ear, giggling as I narrowed my eyes in thought as her words echoed through my head. What could she have meant?