Dawn's stomach was growling loudly. He slightly regretted skipping breakfast, having totally forgotten that today was the free-sparring match.
Ivan stood next to him and pulled a sausage out of his pocket. He unwrapped it from the napkin and waved it under Dawn's nose.

"I had a feeling you'd need this. You've been staring daggers at Mr. Hot-shot Tavear all day. If you're gonna sign up against him then you'll need to be focused on pounding his smug face into the floor, not your stomach." Ivan's sudden seriousness threw Dawn off-guard.

"I'm not going up against him. I may be reckless but I'm not suicidal... He's got issues worse then Abell...No remorse, no anything. He doesn't feel pain." He grabbed the sausage from Ivan and devoured it in an instant.

"Yea? ...Then you've got him matched, 'Wolf'." Ivan winked at Dawn, knowing the use of his old nickname would stir up old memories in his best friend.

"Heh. See, 'Dusk', that's why I keep you around... You keep me insane." Dawn smirked and ran off to sign up for a match against Tavear.

Ivan smiled softly and pulled a biscuit from his pocket.
"Still... Even Wolves fall, old friend... To waste a life on him... You've gotten soft, Dawn." he muttered to the biscuit before taking a bite.

Dawn ran up to Shadow and smiled. "Hey, old buddy, wanna challenge me today?"

Shadow swiveled around in his chair and clicked his pen against the clipboard.
"Who the hell are you calling 'Old', for one. And for two, If by that you mean do I want to put you up against Tavear so you can attempt to knock him around for what he did to Verek after you left this morning-"
Dawn cut him off with a growl.
"Shut up, Old Man! You watch those security screens ALL THE TIME? Pervert! Just put me up against that-"
Shadow's turn to interrupt Dawn.
"It's my job to watch those cameras all the time, whatever juicy night-time dealings I happen to come across is just a real good bonus for all my hard work." He gave a knowing smile to Dawn. "Besides, Tavear is already booked. The name was already penned in when I got the clipboard. Apparently, it's a promise from last week." Shadow tapped the clipboard again.
"WHAT! Tell me who it is!" Dawn reached over the desk, trying to get the clipboard from Shadow's hands.
He smacked dawn's hands away and giggled.
"Interestingly enough, the match is up now and it's the last person you'd expect."
Dawn spun around on his heels to look towards the arena's floor.
There was his best friend, three years younger, stretching and cracking every bone and muscle he could, waiting for the horn to allow him to fight the beast of a man across the arena.
Tavear's shirtless torso looked like it belonged to a God of war, every chiseled and stone-like muscle visible.
Such a sight would usually intimidate his opponent so badly that they would be frozen in fear, unable to fight back.
Yet, there was Ivan, bouncing around like a cat ready to catch a mouse.

He caught Dawn staring at him in shock.
"No worries, Man! We've got scarier guys in Russia. Make this guy look like that American cartoon mouse, да*." (*yeah.)

The horn rang out and Dawn quickly turned away. He didn't want to see his best friend get steamrolled.
His eyes caught in Verek's, sitting up in the stands.
He quickly looked at Shadow in confusion.

Shadow shrugged.
"It's a rule that everyone has to participate...but due to certain circumstances, I told him to sit this one out. Everyone else is paired off, leaving you both out of the fights for today. Go talk if you want... but remember what happened this morning. You'll only cause him more pain."

Dawn flicked his finger at Shadow with a scoff and ran up the stairs to sit next to Verek.