SCOUT

Where were the pressure points on a damn beaver? Scout ducked and rolled, footwork the only thing keeping her in the game. As the beaver whipped his ass around ready to wallop her yet again, she knew something had to change quick. Her back couldn't take another hit like that. In the fraction of a second it took to plot her next move his bodily weapon came thrashing across her calves. The scream was out of her mouth before she realized she was doing it. Of course, she had no idea how loud she was. Hopefully not embarrassingly so.

Stay on your feet. On your feet. But she wasn't on her feet. She was on her knees, tears in her eyes. The judge was raising his fingers in count. She was about to lose.

Forcing herself to stand, on her toes to alleviate the throbbing, stinging pain of her devastated calves, Scout fixed the beaver in her sights. Enough was enough. If she couldn't get his torso, or arms, and his legs were too covered in fat, well she'd just go for the source of her misery. He couldn't whip her if he didn't have a whip.

With all the elegance of a ballet dancer on a high wire, Scout pulled out the best footwork of her life. Shift, feign, block, weave, rotate. He. Can't. Touch. Me. She came up behind him, a flying kick to the shoulder sending him tumbling forward, exposing his lower spine. She knew the pressure point to disable a leg... and thanks to several family members with tails, where those points were too. A beaver couldn't be that different. As she launched her attack, completing it faster than one could draw breath, she went for the leg while she was in the space.

The beaver's eyes widened, his tail falling limp, his leg buckling. With her opponent off balance she stepped into one of her favorite attack sequences, driving him back. Another one out of bounds.

Score!

That left three.

Avoiding eye contact with her frantically signing dad, Scout took her corner as her next opponent stepped up. Another human man. She glanced at the other final pair of fighters on the mat adjacent. Two more humans, both men.

This was it. She understood that now. The only flags called on her all day had been when she'd fought humans. Though this competition was anything but, she had to play it like it was running on honorable tournament rules.

She'd barely stood from bowing in when the blond man tagged her with a right hook. Scout briefly saw stars but had the sense to spin into the momentum, saving her jaw. As she circled around he hit her with a kick to the shoulder that sent pain flaring through her left arm. Staggering back a few steps, she realized he'd pushed her to the boundary line. Nope. She wasn't going down that easy. With a deft block followed by more fancy footwork, and flat out ducking under him, Scout worked her way to the center of the mats. As her opponent gave chase, coming at her with a predictable combination that left his face open, Scout executed a jab cross, feint right, left hook, spin kick to the head combination that knocked the guy flat on his back.

Yes! Yes! Ye- Why was the ref raising a flag? Her opponent was still down. The ref pointing to her and shaking his head, but he was facing the judges and she had no idea what was going on. A glance toward the other two mats showed those matches complete, the winners moving onto one mat for their second to last round.

The ref knelt over the human, helping him upright. Scout looked to her dad to see if he knew what was going on, but he was talking to Uncle Leo and both of them were by the judges table.

With a scowl on his face her dad finally looked her way, signing that they'd put a point against her for unnecessary roughness.

Unnecessary roughness? She had lacerations on her back and legs from the beaver beat down. She'd spent half the day giving as good as she got and now, now they wanted her to go soft? Her jaw ached as her teeth ground together. There really was no way she could win this. Her playing by standard rules while her opponent didn't. The best she could do was get him out of bounds. Surely, they couldn't argue that.

As the two bowed in, he came at her again but she was ready for him. Stepping into a string of combos she began to push him back, then tapped his cheek with a pulled cross. The man staggered back as though she'd hit him with a full force uppercut.

Another flag.

Panting from her wounds, paired with the burn of fatigued muscles forced to hold back their strength, Scout looked to her dad then uncle. Leo shook his head, offered a tight sympathetic smile and signed, "we're already proud of you, Scout. Third is like first for us." Then he nodded. "We will get there. You'll get there."

The judges deliberated with the ref. Then her dad, frowning his apologies, signed they'd awarded two more points to her opponent. He would advance to the finals and she would take third.

It wasn't fair.

Tears burned her eyes as she faced the human man, bowed out and stepped off the floor, leaving him to the final round. She jogged up to her dad, as he and Uncle Leo quickly squished her in a hug.

It wasn't fair. But she had made it to third. Third, against adults three times her size! In a shady competition that had her pegged for failure.

As she wiggled free, her dad signed how awesome she did. Her uncle nodded his approval. Soon, her family was clamoring around her, Grandmere scowling at her wounds, Uncle Leo refusing to let her heal them yet, signing about discretion.

Uncle Raph's hand appeared on her shoulder, his proud smirk. "Ya did good, Kid." He signed.

Next, Yuuta hugged her gingerly, the only one seeming to pay attention to where her injuries were as he embraced her, letting go to sign. "Super proud of you."

She looked at each of them. Uncle Leo had pushed her dad to push her harder. Uncle Raph helped her control her temper. Uncle Yuuta worked with her in rehab. And her dad reminded her of her path when she'd strayed so far from it. They each had as much to do with her personal victory as she did. They put time into her. They believed in her. Despite everything that happened. Finally, finally, she hadn't let them down. They knew the judging was unfair. She knew it. As bad as it could make her feel, she wouldn't let it. Because this was her path. This was her paving the way for those after her.

"Thank you." She signed to each of them. "Each one of you, for never giving up on me."

Her dad hooked an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. He walked her toward the awards circle, turned her to face him and signed, "You earned this, Cubs. You did. And I'm totes proud of you, Baby Girl."

Tears slid down Scout's cheeks. His words made third place feel like first. The looks on their faces. The pride in their eyes. That was her everything. Standing tall, she marched toward the third spot on the podium with her head up. She'd accept this award with honor, and she'd be back however many times it took for the win.

MIKEY

Mikey stretched, reaching an arm around Denim to draw her close to him. Her and the bunched-up sheets and the comforter slipping off the side of the bed. She stirred, mumbled something incoherent in her sleep and settled in against him without ever fully waking.

He let out a contented sigh as he looked up to the ceiling. It had been kind of a while since he'd felt so chill. Life was good.

Alli was looking flush with health and happiness. She'd eat some of her old faves for Anton. Part of him was a little hurt and disappointed that he couldn't help her, but it didn't even come close to counterbalancing the relief that Anton could. She was moving on and building her own life apart from him. Of course, he wasn't cut out completely, but he wasn't in the center of her world anymore. He'd miss that, but her joy heartened him. His little Alli-bird deserved the coming-true of all her dreams and he could let go a bit so she could have it.

And then there was Jem. It was still so amazing to see his mini-me belting out the tunes on stage. Well holo-Jem anyway, but who didn't want a virtu-tastic alter ego? Having a cyber twin sounded super fun. Somehow his J-ster had found the beat and a way to live it. It and the bubbly M&M who brought a sparkle to his boy's eyes and helped draw him out of his shell. They'd had their rough patch but he believed Jem was gonna be just fine.

Scout. His Cubs. He'd come so close to losing her in so many ways, his throat threatened to close up just thinking about it. But she was whole and home now, in body and spirit. He wished he could give her sound. She had the beat to. But she remembered who she was and why she loved being her. That mattered more than anything else. She'd found her way and he planned on walking it with her as long as she'd let him because life didn't seem right without his Cubs.

Yup. The pizzeria was great. The kids were great. Blue Jeans was great. It was all super great.

With a smile on his face he drifted off into a deep, untroubled sleep.