("Soldier keep on marchin' on
Head down 'til the work is done
Waiting on that morning sun
Soldier keep on marchin' on."

"Head in the dust, feet in the fire
Labour on that midnight wire
Listening for that angel choir
You got nowhere to run."

"Quiet now, you're gonna wake the beast
Hide your soul out of his reach
Shiver to that broken beat
Dark into the heat.")

- Fleurie, "Soldier"

January, 2014

3rd year, age 15

It had been months of working out in the gym in the early morning, before it was even light out the windows. Josh had thought that eventually, Maya Hart would get tired of waking up at 5am to work out in the gym. Girls were like that, right? They do something for like fifteen minutes and then decide they don't have the motivation.

But Maya Hart had beat Josh to the gym every morning without fail for the past three months, and he was starting to get the idea that this girl was here to stay.

How long did it take for habits to take again?

Josh dropped his bag on the floor, making his way over to the floor mats to sit and stretch. He threw his gaze over to the tiny blonde lifting weights and tried to make out how much she was actually doing. From the size alone, he guessed maybe 50lb dumbbells.

He dropped his gaze back to his legs when she glanced up to see him staring.

"You are probably the least flexible person I've ever met," her voice came echoing through the large gym, and he groaned, cursing himself for acknowledging she was even there.

"Males and females have different body structures," he reminded her, not looking back.

"Flexibility is important for fighting," Maya returned, her voice getting louder as she came closer. "Can you spring back after getting kicked down? Flip over an incoming attack?"

"Can you?" Josh asked, before realizing his mistake.

"Yeah," Maya smiled, coming to sit in front of him and stretching her legs out to make a nearly straight line. She leaned back and put her palms flat on the ground behind her, her head upside down, and pushed herself up and over on her arms until her legs hit the ground and she was standing.

"I don't see how that helps you win a fight," Josh stated, getting up to stretch his arms. "Maybe if you were in a rhythmic gymnastics competition."

"Well let's see then," Maya offered, following him as he left the mat.

"See what?" Josh clarified, uncapping his water bottle.

"Whether I can beat you using my flexibility skills," she stated simply, crossing her arms.

Josh snorted. "Yeah, because a 5 foot tall, 90 pound, thirteen year old girl is going to beat me in a spar. Dream on."

"Hand-to-hand, no weapons," Maya pushed. "Why not try? Unless you're scared you'll lose."

Josh closed his eyes and felt his heart beating, trying not to let his frustration get the better of him. He opened his eyes to see that smirk on the tiny girl's face, knowing she was berating him, pushing him. Maybe she wanted to see how far she could go before Josh went off on her.

"If I win," Josh said, and Maya grinned, knowing she'd gotten him, "you stop working out here in the mornings. I want my gym time back."

"And if I win," Maya agreed, "you tell me how to get your sister off of my back."

"Fine," Josh agreed. He had absolutely no idea how to reign Riley in - he had never been able to do it himself - but he had no doubt he wouldn't need to. Maya was about half a foot shorter than him and probably a good 40 pounds lighter. Not to mention the fact that she was two years younger than him, and he had been training basically his whole life. There was no way she could win a spar against him.

"Rules?" Maya asked, as she took a defense stance and Josh stepped back onto the spring-floor mat.

"Basic friendly fight," Josh stated, "no cheap shots, no head, no groin or," he gestured to Maya's chest, and Maya snorted.

"You can say 'breasts' dude," she said, "it's not a bad word."

"Surrender word is yield," Josh continued, "and since we don't have a facilitator," he referenced the school rule that stated that all spars had to have an instructor present, "remember the first rule of fight club."

"Obviously," Maya shrugged. "Are we gonna do this?"

"You asked for it," Josh muttered under his breath.

The two teens circled the floor, sizing each other up, before Josh made the first move, throwing a hook at Maya's face, which she avoided by literally doing a back handspring and using her leg to knock his arm to the left, throwing him to the left with it. He circled back around, this time pulling his leg up to kick her side, throwing her off balance, although she just dipped her torso forwards and pulled her leg all the way up in the air and around to kick again.

"You use your legs too much," Josh stated, throwing and landing a hit to her shoulder.

"And you don't use yours enough," Maya shot back, leaping into the air and spinning around to knock him off his feet with her own foot. She dropped to the ground and took hold of his arm to flip him onto his stomach.

Josh flipped around and pinned her the other way, their faces two inches from each other. "You're going to want to yield," he commanded, but Maya only smirked.

She pulled her legs up between Josh's and twisted them, forcing Josh to turn so that his knees wouldn't break, and she took the opportunity to turn his leg even further, flipping up and pressing her knee to his back, his leg forced almost all the way around and up above his other thigh, effectively trapping him and nearly breaking his knee again.

"Yield," he coughed out, and Maya stood up, crossing her arms and smiling.

Josh turned over, clenching his jaw in anger.

"That wouldn't have happened if you were more flexible," Maya pointed out, and Josh sprang up, advancing on her.

He wasn't even sure what he was going to do when he got to her, but Maya darted back as he got closer, seeing the anger radiating off of him. He clenched his fists, not bothering to look at his wrist to see that his heart was beating way out of control.

All he could think was, 'weak'. She had won against him. He had lost against a thirteen year old girl. This wasn't right. This had to be fixed.

"Matthews," Maya said, backing up, fear beginning to show on her face, which gave Josh some sick satisfaction.

'Good, be afraid, you should be afraid of me.'

"Matthews!" Maya said again, quickening her pace as Josh quickened his. Her fear was getting more evident, but all Josh could see was red.

"Josh!" The yell came from behind him, and he jerked to a stop, his vision clearing as he became harshly aware of what had just happened.

His sister darted forward, coming around into his view and he shook himself, eyes landing on Maya, whose eyes were wide and face was white. He could see the sweat on her brow and on her neck that had not been there during their fight, and some part of him jarred.

"What the hell is going on here?" Riley asked, glancing back and forth between Maya and Josh, as they stared intently at each other, not breaking eye contact.

Maya didn't speak, although Josh knew what she wanted to say, and he was very glad she wasn't going to say it. He had no idea what he would do to her if she did.

"Maya?" Riley asked, going to Maya's side as Maya finally broke Josh's gaze and focused on Riley next to her.

"Nothing, we're fine," Maya said cooly, not looking at Josh again as she walked over to her bag and picked it up, fleeing from the gym.

Riley looked back at Josh, her eyes wide. "What the hell did you do to her?"

"Nothing," Josh stated, flicking his wrist over. 154 bpm.

Technically, that wasn't a lie. She had beat him. And he hadn't done a damn thing about it.

Yet.

"What were you going to do, if I hadn't…?" Riley asked, her voice going quieter as she stared up at her brother.

"Nothing," Josh stated, his voice getting colder as he looked down at her. "Now get the hell out of here, Riley."

Riley's eyes widened, evidently wondering if she was brave enough to disobey him when he said it in such a dangerous voice. She swallowed, and nodded, walking away quickly, as Josh stared down at his wrist and tried to control himself.

Josh showered, pushing his face into the hot water, and tried to figure out how he was supposed to keep up his end of the bargain. How was he supposed to get Riley to leave Maya alone? How was he supposed to get Riley to do anything, after what she had just seen in his face?

"God, I hate academic classes," Josh groaned, staring down at his history homework. He was flashing back to when his dad had been his teacher in grade 7. Everything had been so different back then.

"Sorry to hear it," Lucas snorted from the other side of the room where he was sitting at his own desk doing who knows what.

"Yeah it's always so easy for guys like you," Josh glared at Lucas.

"You've got your strengths," Lucas pointed out.

"Anyone can go to the gym," Josh said.

"I meant fighting," Lucas corrected. He looked up at Josh and raised his eyebrows.

Josh leaned his head back. "Who told you?"

Lucas looked back down. "Told me what?" He asked.

Josh narrowed his eyes. "Fine."

He didn't really enjoy talking to his roommate, after all. It had been a few months since Lucas got to the academy, and although he and Josh hadn't had many conversations, they had learned how to work around each other. When Lucas got up in the morning, Josh was already at the gym, and when Josh went back in the afternoon, Lucas was usually in the library doing homework. They both preferred time alone, and so, without talking about it, they had organized their schedules so that they were rarely in the room at the same time, except for the few hours they were asleep.

Riley had used to make fun of Josh for being a "cool detached loner boy cliche", but she had stopped when she started to take on that personality herself. Josh knew that somewhere inside of her, she was still that sweet and happy twelve year old girl, but operations was cut throat and she had been forced to adapt or not survive.

Parts of him wondered how much had been forced on her from their peers, and how much of it had been pressure from their mom.

Josh dropped his bag on the floor and chose a section of the gym that was as far away from the blonde as possible, and began his daily workout. He hadn't spoken to Maya in weeks; not since their spar. Maya hadn't spoken to him either, which Josh was glad about for more reasons than one.

He did not want to talk to Maya. He did not want to think about Maya. He did not want anything to do with her. But she showed up in the gym, without fail, every morning.

But did he not want anything to do with her because she annoyed him? Because she had beat him, frustrated him?

He glanced over to her, watching as she blew some of her blonde hair out of her eyes.

Or because he was afraid of what he had almost done?

A/N: So I figured out (kind of) how I'm going to do the whole timeline thing. The beginning of each chapter will have the month, year, and the grade and age of the person whose point of view the chapter is in. (I will edit the last chapter and repost it)

I liked the first part of this chapter and then had to end it a little vaguely, so I didn't like the end. However, this did kinda introduce the enemies to lovers Joshaya arc, so yay! (Yes, they will be lovers in the end. Maya needs Josh; Josh needs Maya; they hurt each other and also fix each other at the same time.) I'm excited for this ship but I have to get a ship timeline because right now all I have is emotions-high bits, and I have to tie them together.

I have no idea whose chapter will be next, or when it will be up. I'm in the last few weeks of the quarter so I've got finals coming up soon, but if you guys know me, you'll know that I write more when I'm avoiding homework so who knows; you might get a new chapter in the next few weeks.

(Yep, ya girl is a procrastinator through and through.)

I'm going to try to post something to Anecdoche soon too, but I've been blocked on that for a while. Sorry for those of you who were hoping for an update :(

Please review! I love feedback :)

Kisses,

C