Welcome

"Jesus…Ian could you have gone a bit lighter on us?" Electric demanded. He was more bruised than he had been. Sam and the other brothers that had trained with them were also bruised and sweaty.

"Ian's a vamp, a vamp means hard-boned." Sam told Eletric, half teasing and half sarcastic. "Of coarse he couldn't go lighter."

"I could have." Ian told them, "But you were already training at a good level, so I decided to level you out some."

Brianna laughed, "Poor babies," she teased even as she rubbed Leo's arm from her spot standing behind him, "From what I used to go through and what I saw, that was nothing, you guys, nothing."

Leo laughed and shook his head, "It's interesting, training with a vampire. Who actually knows more fighting skills than some," He directed this over to the firecracker and the electric rod.

Lily nodded, "It's all in the determination and the motivation," she said, "And you have to have it all of the time, not just when one of us is in danger. We're in danger all the time if you think about it," she pointed out.

"Their complaining because they want to Lily-chan." Matt piped up. "Their used to fighting like this. They were hoping for a lighter break since they were injured."

"If anyone should be getting a break, it will be me." Ellie declared. "None of you have broken bones or sprained wrists or ankles to heal do you?" She grinned in triumph. "I get a break!"

"You're going to be trained twice as hard when you're well again." Ian reminded, dashing Ellie's hopes in a second.

"Injured? Pfft!" Bria snorted, "These are just scratches," she rubbed her own shoulder and grinned and nudged Leo's chair, quoting him from long ago.

"A scratch to a mortal isn't a scratch to a vamp." Ian said with a slight smile. "After all Leo did make you…sit out…of the training session, didn't he?"

"Yes, yes," Bria smiled, "Gomen, I'm just hyper from watching you guys, it makes me a little jealous."

Everyone besides the ninja brothers gave her a look of absolute horror. Jacob wasn't very surprised, but everyone else was. "My god," Ellie said, staring at her. "Your pregnancy must have corrupted you. Training is BAD Bria. BAD!"

"Especially with Ian," Electric agreed.

"No way!" Sam looked as if he had been betrayed by a best friend, "You too?"

She made a helpless shrug, "I felt a little left out."

"Why does everyone dislike training so much?" Bria raised an eyebrow and smiled, "It's got nothing to do with being left out with me, Matt. I actually think training is /FUN/!" she cheered, "I can't wait for my arm to heal up enough for me to train. If Andy wouldn't have yelled at me I would at least be doing light training or katas."

"You are the weirdest person I know." Sam said, "And that is surprising since Matt is pretty weird." The girlish boy gave him a glare, but didn't say a word about it.

"Yeah, so? You're weird, too," Bria stated, "And he's weird, and she's weird, and him," she pointed to Electric, Ellie, and Jacob. "We're all weird somehow. You're going to have to find a better word, sweets, because 'weird' doesn't cut it."

Matt laughed, "No it doesn't…Not at all…"

"I have decided that we might want to bring in more fighters." Ian said randomly, "Just training among us, didn't help last time during the Prelude. It won't help during the final."

"So harder training means bringing in more opponents to fight meaning that we're going to end up dead…" Sam said to them, rolling his eyes. "I'm hoping for something more. Don't know about the rest."

"Nice to have," Sam shrugged, "Am I being unreasonable?"

Ian shook his head, "No, it's reasonable. Safe to have as well…"

"I was just asking," Bria shrugged and then sat on Leo's lap, shifting so it was comfortable for them both, "And you know, Sam, having more opponents to fight against broadens our range of experience, because we memorize each other and we recognize us, but it takes us off guard when we don't know or recognize a move someone else makes."

"I'll ask friends that live in our territory if they wish to train with us, then." Ian replied, "It'd do us something good."

"Alright, so we're out of bag of tricks then?" Sam asked, "That we would have to render it necessary?"

"I don't care." Matt said with a shrug, "It should be a good thing, to have someone else to train with. Someone that's not used to us and we're not used to them."

Leo thought for a while and said, "It'd extend our range and our strengths. We can find more weaknesses to work on, and we can get stronger if we do have more opponents to work against."

"Exactly," Bria nodded and smiled and hooked her fingers with Leo's with her good arm leaning back against his chest, "What do you think about all of this, Mikey?" she asked the normally hyper orange ninja who had been quiet this whole time.

"Huh?" Mikey looked over at her and then everyone else that was in the room that was waiting for him to say something, "Oh…um…I guess. I don't mind."

"Did you even hear a word they said?" a giggling voice asked from the doorway. A bright and very healthy-looking Nao leaned casually against the fame, arms folded across her stomach and her mouth curved into an amused smile.

Mikey stared in disbelief for just a few seconds before he ran over and hugged her tightly. "You're okay!" He said happily. Very happily, "You're okay! You're fine!"

Nao laughed, and not just her normal light laugh, but the one she rarely did. She really and truly laughed. She hugged him back just as tightly, putting her own death grip on him, "Yes, yes, I'm alright," she said with a huge grin. She couldn't describe how wonderful his happy bear hug was. She welcomed the feeling of being crushed just so she could feel his joy.

He gently let her go and gave her a big smile. "I can't believe it. I'm so happy!" He gently let her go and gave her a big smile. His eyes searched hers, and what she looked like now. She was so, very different from what she looked like when she was sick and unhealthy. Pale and fragile… "I'm so glad your okay," He said, gently touching her face and holding her close. "Don't do that again?"

Nao nodded firmly, "I promise," she swore to him, "Though, if it does somehow happen again, we know how to fix it." She reached up with one hand and touched his face and then her other hand held his to her cheek, 'You know, everyone else is watching us and some find this amusing…do you care?' she asked him through their link with a smile.

'I don't care, your back with me.' Mikey replied. 'That's all that matters to me.' He gently brushed his fingers on her cheek and gripped her hand the best he could even though her hand was on top of his. 'Your here with me, Nao. That's all that I care about right now.'

"I love you too, Nao. You didn't hurt me, but you did scare me. Now that I know how to help…a bit more easily, I can." Mikey gently kissed her and deepened it.

Nao felt her heart squeeze and her body tingled. She didn't hesitate a bit to respond to it, winding and gripping her fingers in his hair.

He held her tightly against him, not really caring about who was watching or anything. He was so happy…so grateful that everything finally was alright. She was fine and okay. That was all that mattered.