Installment III
Chapter 10
"Thanks again, Wrinkle." Kina closed out any further questions she might have had…She took his offer as final word and left the elcor in the office.
Leaving Wrinkle to his inventorying, Kina walked over to the checkin desk and glanced at Billa.
Turning his page slowly, his fingers flattened the leaf to the book as he tilted his gaze towards her…equally slow.
She remembered what he'd told her when she had first checked in to charge her session for entry, and far more poignant was his warning to her now that she had heard what she had from Wrinkle himself on the fate of the gym and fighting club. Billa knew what had happened between Wrinkle and Royal Thomson. They maintained eye contact, and a deeper understanding of each other's thoughts than before when they were simply faces touching base and being cordial at the gym.
With a nod, she went back into the gym from the outer entrance.
The mats yielded under the weight of her feet as she found an area to begin her warmup.
Across the gym, Randal Hebin noticed her entrance.
He nodded to his three friends and started to cross the gym towards Kina. In the eye of a camera lens, his motions were observed. Billa's voice squawked out at first over the speaker system wired throughout the ceiling. "Somebody's gray Ford four-door is being moved out of the No Parking zone to the left of the gym by Transportation and Security Services of Bingham Heights. Would the owner of a gray Ford four-door that has parked to the left of the building please go outside before your car is towed to impound."
A swear went up loud from Randal Hebin.
He ran off the floor. "That's my fucking car."
The three men with him went after Randal.
Kina's expression was smug as she watched them leave the gym and go through the divide to the front entrance.
Her legs protested some at first as she enjoyed a long stretch on the mat, tucked in a corner by herself.
Standing from her stretches, she pulled a loop of rope off a bracket hook on the wall and began to warmup with some cardio and footwork.
The jump rope lasted five minutes and she moved into repeated drills of takedowns, lunges, a variety of stances and follow-throughs for her next section of conditioning…She worked herself into a warm sheen of sweat from repeating and perfecting the movements until they felt seamless, her body loosened, and she glided into one and the other, conducting herself through a series of rehearsed setups and moves she used in her fighting.
From the front entrance, emerging by the divide, an influx of men and women came to start their own training and began to fill the gym with the noise of their feet, gear, and conversations.
Kina stayed focused on her workout and conditioning. She ignored anyone coming over to watch and the nods in her direction.
People wanted to talk to her, but she wasn't ready yet…She didn't want to talk, not while she was concentrating…The sweat dripped from her chin and down her back from her neck, out from under her hairline, and looks of admiration were ignored while she trained in her zone.
Droplets of sweat formed on her skin and fell to the mat from her limbs.
She left the mats for a shadow box off the floor, and turned on the bright lights to cast her stark shadow against white concrete walls, now cast yellow by the glare from behind…It was instantly warm against her skin, and her sweat started to spray with her punches and shots…Someone was outside cleaning the mats where she was dripping a moment earlier.
Her green eyes were bright and focused on the shadow she cast and chased over the wall, a cat hunting and attacking each movement created by herself.
Fifteen minutes passed until the mat under her feet was slick with her sweat, and still she was shadowing her own shadow, dodging and kicking, jabbing and thrusting until she felt the presence…She spun, fists up, toes pointed towards the woman beside the lamps directed at the wall…Belle Elle.
Kina relaxed and stood upright, bringing her feet closer together. She walked over to Elle, turning off the lights.
"You should leave here, not work for Thomson and his gang."
At first Elle said nothing, but glared at Kina for saying what she had. Her finger raised in the middle of her hand, taped and sweaty with training, covered in chalk.
Elle turned with a lingering stare and snapped her face forward to walk out of the light box.
Kina stared at her back, turned to the lamps and switched them back on, then went to the wall to keep training with her silhouette dancing once again in the lights.
Crossing from the light box to the other side of the gym, Elle sought the lobby of phones.
She paced back and forth in the small square, waiting for a booth to open among the doors to the lot and upper floor of the warehouse.
She looked at the first phone booth, occupied by a large man who stepped out upon seeing her come into the area.
"She out there?"
"In the shadow box."
She stepped out of his way to let him pass.
§
Kina stepped out of the shadow box and went to the free weights, her brow wet with sweat and hair stuck to her forehead and temples.
Grabbing a barbell, she lifted it out of its holder with two hands, the bar upright in the air, and carried it to an open space on rubber tiles. She laid it down, prevented it from rolling with her foot, and went to collect her plates.
She carried two forty-fives over, one in each hand, and set these down on one end of the bar. She brought over two more to the other end, then added a ten and five to each side. She began to slide these on, then clamped these securely to the barbell with clips.
Standing in the middle of the bar, feet flat on the floor, she gripped the knurls, sank her hips after taking a belly breath and holding inward, spread the floor through her feet and ripped the barbell upward into her thighs just by her groin.
The plates rang against each other and the rubber tiles as they descended to the floor.
The gym resounded with the impact again of the weights.
Some training members of the gym stopped to observe.
The man from the phone lobby stood in the middle of the floor, observing as well.
Back in the phone lobby, Elle stood in the booth, phone in hand as she spoke into the receiver.
The door opened to the phones and her.
Another man, dressed like the first and as large, came through it.
The door marked "Exit Only" closed behind him.
Elle listened to the speaker on the line as she looked up through tattooed tears at the man passing by her booth.
§
Breaking down her load, Kina reracked the plates and barbell.
In the middle of the gym was the training ring for fighters, affectionately called "The Box"…Kina headed over to it after drinking from the fountain and climbed between the ropes to enter it.
Now she was ready to "talk"…Waiting for someone to spar with her, she stood in the ring, her face and body an expression of expectations.
She passed her inviting gaze over the floor of the gym, took notice of two big men conversing in front of the phone lobby, and they stepped towards the ring together.
Another trainee was crossing the gym towards the ring to join her…Kina's eyes left the two big men to see who it was.
The men changed course to cross into the path of this man coming towards the rink, and Kina narrowed her eyes at their obvious motivation. They stood in his way, looking at each other, and the man's eyes no longer on her or the rink.
The men were obviously deterring him, and her potential sparring partner backed up and returned to the mats to stretch.
The place became uncomfortable…Kina sensed what was at work yet still she waited, hoping someone would climb under the ropes and enter the ring with her.
Randal Hebin stepped from the divide at the entrance to the gym.
Kina stood out, isolated on the raised stage of the inner ring. He made eye contact with her.
"Fuck." Kina stood as tall as she could. She looked at him and at the rest of Wrinkle's gym.
He started over the mats towards the ring.
The big men converged on him, but took his coat as he pulled this off and handed it to the man on his left.
Randal grabbed the bottom rope and climbed up onto the ring's stage, through the lines.
The gym had quieted to observe the confrontation.
Kina clenched and opened her taped fists by her sides as she stood with the ropes behind her. She was alone.
Her eyes burned at him, through him, down to the big men on the floor, those around her who wouldn't stand up to them…or for her.
He raised his fists, bare, and cracked these for her to see.
Kina glanced once more at the big men holding Randal's coat.
"Fuck you, Hebin." Her eyes narrowed on him.
It took every ounce of discipline not to break down then. She turned and stuck her head out from under the ropes, shoulders, body, and legs following as she abandoned the box.
"Pussy."
She felt her brow wince with the heckle and ground her back molars together, but she did not rise to his baiting her…Fight another day…She walked away, knowing her time at Wrinkle's was ended. She avoided the men, walking around the ring and passing the phone lobby where Elle had been watching the drama unfold.
Elle stepped clear of the wall blocking off the phones from the gym and watched Kina's figure go to the women's locker room.
She looked up at Randal facing her from the ring.
He smiled and climbed over the ropes, returning to the gym's floor.
Turning to the locker room, Elle walked after Kina's disappearing back.
§
She ripped the tape off.
Unlacing her trainers, she kicked these off one after the other.
She pulled her wet sneakers out of the locker and tugged them on, tying up the laces.
She punched her hands through her coat's sleeves.
Putting her sneakers through the openings in her sweatpants, she pulled the waistband up around her legs and over her shorts.
She picked up her bag by the straps and slung this over her shoulder.
Once again, she turned to find Elle standing at the end of the locker row, watching her.
"You should leave…and watch your back."
Kina gave her opinion of Elle's advice with an eye-roll.
She also repeated her gesture from the shadow-boxing room and gave her the middle finger.
As Kina walked by Elle, the woman grabbed her arm.
Her fingers were tight as a vice.
Cutting her elbow upward, Kina broke the grip and the two stood nose to nose with each other, eyes hot, breath in each other's nostrils.
"Tommy wants our rematch."
"He and you can go fuck each other."
"Tommy's going to get you, Kina…You think you're out, you're not—"
"I didn't sign no contract…but his goon's already told me what he wants me to do to put that shine back on your fucking star…I know, Elle, and I'm not going to give it to you."
"Then you'll never fight again, here or anywhere Tommy runs the box…Not without bending over."
"You do it for me. I got better things to do with my time than suck Tommy's rigged pots...and fuck you, Elle." She turned from the woman and walked out.
Elle leaned on the locker row end and rolled her shoulders, glaring at the lion on the back of Kina's coat.
§
Kina went by Billa with a final salute goodbye, the salarian staring at her as she left through the squealing door into the cold day.
The sky was still gray and heavy-looking as she tilted her head back and looked up into the clouds.
Kina glanced left and right to see her surroundings.
Tightening her grip on her straps, she started the walk homeward.
There'd be no shuttle until the evening for going inbound. Kina realized with acceptance it would be a long walk and bitter. The shuttle passed by Wrinkle's in each direction only twice, morning and evening, and it was not even noon yet.
Five years of training and now nothing. She couldn't go back to Wrinkle's with Thomson owning the joint, and she'd have to find another way to make money. She'd have to find a way to get to Creighton Falls and start from the bottom up, doing expos until she could get a shot with a fighter who brought in a big pot of cash. She was pissed, but what could she do? Become a pawn played by Royal Thomson, Randal's kick-the-can trash whenever he wanted to mess with her? Fuck no. And she needed a job. The last pot would hold her up a while, and she was lucky she hadn't bought more sessions yet at Wrinkle's.
But she could never go back. They had made it clear they would make it hard on her there unless she played their game or signed with Thomson.
Her face closed off with the injustice of it all, but at least she'd had warning. Billa and Wrinkle. Her lips curled into a sneer then pressed together in a stiff grimace.
And she hated losing the time she would for training at the gym. Practice was invaluable. Her workout had been interrupted and she felt like she'd been running full speed before the tank suddenly gained a leak and emptied out. She hated that feeling of losing acceleration when everything was going so right….and now where would she train as intensely as she did there? Where would she lift, spar, and condition herself…Not in her apartment…She really needed to figure out how to reach Creighton Falls and soon so she wouldn't decondition or atrophy.
Her sessions remaining at Wrinkle's were quite forfeited. That stung, too, as it was lost money and training opportunities.
Maybe she was being too prideful. No one had messed with her while she conditioned and lifted, but Randal and those men hadn't been inside on her then—only when she went into the ring and expected to spar with someone did it become clear they would use the opportunity to hurt her. The idea to try and go back and use her sessions suddenly dwindled back into its hopeless ash.
Elle made it clear Thomson wouldn't make leaving easy, and that he wanted her to sign up to the club. Wrinkle had made it clear that was the last thing she should do. Randal had paid his visit and passed his disturbing message from Thomson….Either run and quit, Kina, or sign up to get rigged into shitty thrown fights, used until your fists and head don't work anymore?…She wanted to see Rocky.
Snow and slush sprayed from her angry kick.
She pulled her sleeves over her fingers and jammed these into her pockets. Fifteen miles to her building.
The road was sparse of cars during the mid-morning hours, but those that did speed by sprayed sludge, cold and harsh, towards the sidewalk which was interrupted with just long patches of her walking along the actual street way.
Slush landed on her pants and bag from a truck that roared by next on the opposite side of the road, that hit a ditch with its tires.
"Fuck." She stopped to wipe off the dirty snow and water from her pants and pack.
She felt water begin to pat her forehead and cheek. Looking upward, the first droplets of rain started to spill from the clouds.
Chapter 11
Kina was coming up the stairs to her floor when Konis stepped from his apartment.
Her shoes and sweats made slopping sounds with her steps onto the wood and then onto the rug running the length of the hall. She was shivering. The color of her coat, hair, pants, and bag were shades darker from the rain and walking in it for ten of the fifteen miles as it had stopped, teasing her to think she would luck out and the storm would miss her, only to open again after the relieving pause.
He could have rephrased it, but he asked her the question, "…Why have you been soaked," knowing it had rained, but wanting to know why she had chosen to walk in that freezing rain.
Kina figured that he wanted to know why she had been of the mind to walk instead of taking a cab or a shuttle as she did earlier—instead of the painfully obvious downpour melting snow and flooding away salt crystals through the view of the foyer door windows down the staircase. "I'm out of my training club. Got kicked out today by new management and the shuttle only comes again in the evening when I usually leave. I don't have a phone on me to call a ride with the cab company."
Dropping her sports pack to the floor, it was the only material waterproof she had on her, and it shed its dewed drops of melted sleet and rain onto the wood and part of the rug. She opened it, took out a key, unlocked her door, and hoped the window had been fixed.
She could see as the door widened that her window was repaired and the furniture pushed back into the Sup's sense of order there in her living room, the blanket and tarp folded in a loose state and left under the repaired window frame.
The new glass had been set and caulked, appearing darker than the original glass which remained undamaged in the frame of the pane above.
She stared for a little at the frame between the panes where the locks overlapped their keys and grooves to seal shut. The Sup had drilled screws through each and now the window could not be opened. He did say a new window was coming, so hopefully that's temporary…
And hopefully no fires would break out in the building or her apartment anytime soon since now her fire escape was inaccessible as an emergency route.
She picked up her bag's straps and carried it inside. Konis followed her with his gaze.
He turned, inserted his key into his lock, and secured his apartment.
With a folded set of knuckles, he knocked once on her doorframe.
"You said your training club has new management." He saw her removing her coat and sneakers. "Why would they tell you no longer to go and use their facility if you were in a good standing before now. At least I presume you were." He stepped back as she placed her wet sneakers by the door where a heat vent was under the entry table, exposed to the interior of her apartment.
Kina stepped right of the door and put her coat on its hook, then picked up her bag and unzipped it, placing it on the floor again and kneeling down to go through its contents.
She displayed an involuntary shiver and stilled as she felt about to sneeze.
Evident was her wish not to discuss what had happened, so Konis switched to another subject—namely her condition. "You must remove those clothes from yourself and change into a dry set soon."
He glanced at the window, saw the screwed locks and frowned.
It had been repaired though now she was condemned to an inoperable view of an escape route, he concluded.
He glanced at Kina, still organizing her bag, and turned to go back to his apartment.
Unlocking his door and re-entering, he went into his kitchen.
Opening his cabinet, he withdrew two large cans of a chicken broth and left the kitchen. He went out into the hall and across to her doorway.
Once again, he knocked his knuckles once on the doorframe to let her know he was there.
She had closed the door, but reopened to let him come in.
She sniffed a runny nose and went back to sitting in front of a vent on the floor, blowing out warm air at her. She was stripped to her sports tank and shorts and these were dark with damp.
"I brought some bouillon." He extended his arm some to offer the can in his right hand.
"Thanks," she glanced up at it, "…Keep it…I have soup…I can afford a dollar-can of soup."
The expression on her face was profound. She looked as if great disappointment had fallen upon her and she was trying to carry it alone. And she was. The reduced swells and freshly scabbed-over cuts on her face would at least have been tempered by the cold she'd walked through. Her face almost appeared as it had when he first saw her through the window of Rocky's storefront, coming into the interior. She stood suddenly and walked to the doorway. "You can go, I don't need help." She started to close the door as he backed out into the hall, but the door hit his boot and did not reach the frame.
"Do you have a backup for your club facility?" He removed his foot and she did not shut him out…yet. "You mentioned you 'hustle' to make ends meet." His eyes darted to the apartment's interior and back to her face, her eyes unevenly opened as she gazed at him with suspicion, or confusion, by what he was asking—and he was asking a lot in that moment, even unspoken still it was. "Do you have a plan in reserve for this problem you are now facing?" It was his way of forming an idea of what would impact her now she had "lost" her training club.
She understood and her face relaxed. "Since I don't have access to Wrinkle's—my gym, my club—I don't have a way to train. I'm cut off from the fights and the pots I was winning there to help pay for this place, food, training tools, fees, you get the idea…I'm going to see what I can pickup to make some extra cash if I can't get over to Creighton Falls, and that's another place where I might be able to go and start earning pots again," she explained for his expression gave her the impression he wanted to understand the significance of that city name, "…and that's a project I need to figure out—how to get there on a limited fund—so I've got a lot on my mind, and I need to warm up from the walk and just…think."
"Creighton Falls is a city next to Bingham Heights."
"Yeah."
"What is the exact location?"
"There's a club out there called Glory Fists, run by some woman my former club owner knows."
"You don't have transportation other than your feet?"
"I took a shuttle to Wrinkle's every day, and my training regimen lasts about eight hours. That's with breaks and stuff. Not important," she shook her head, wet brown strands bouncing off her cheekbones and a scab, "…I need to find public transportation that gets me out there and then walk to the place, so I'll need a day or two to figure out the logistics and factor that into my training plan, but the shuttle can't be one of those auxiliary services that only does a few times out of the seven days. I need transportation every day to stay on top of my training." She sighed, blowing out a gust of breath he could smell was dehydrated and lacking sugars.
Konis nodded and Kina closed the door once he'd removed his boot.
"If I may ask," he knew his voice could be heard through the thin door, "…in light of having given you my contact card, you could have reached me from a device at the gym. I presume this gym is a business like any other and would have a method of communicating with businesses or customers. Why did you not use the tool you had?"
The door opened again and she looked out.
"You ask a lot of questions when you don't get used the way you expect to be used." She tilted her head, skin touching the doorframe as she looked at him with slightly reddened eyes.
"What?" He smiled at her statement. "Used the way I expect to be used, what do you mean by that?"
"I meant…" She fluttered her eyelids and breathed out. "When you offer help and I don't want it, you act like it bothers you."
"I'm not bothered. I simply want to know what you're thinking was when you had the tool but didn't use it to help yourself."
"I honestly, one, don't know how to contact you with those numbers and symbols on the card. I don't have a phone that functions with those symbols and I wouldn't know how to use one that did. And two, I didn't think of it, trying to call you for help…It didn't seem, I dunno, like it fit the case."
"That if you needed help…" He lifted his chin away from his hand as he had stroked the smooth scales of the pair under his lips, "…it would not count as help?"
The door closed a little more, shutting him out almost. All he could see were two tilted green-and-brown mixed irises looking at him, and her pupils.
"I need to take a shower, Konis….Take care."
The door finally closed and did not reopen to his view.
Chapter 12 NSFW
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Removing her hand from the latte container, Cartira admired the bracelet sparkling on her wrist with Kina.
"Let's take this out of your hand here," he removed the latte from her opposite hand and secured it into a cupholder along the interior of the airlimo.
Glancing at her dumfounded expression, he moved her hand on which the bracelet shimmered and swayed, bringing her arm across his chest as he lowered his head and kissed the inside of her bare bicep.
"Cartira," she felt the lips of golden scale soft on her skin, warm like melted butter in a pot, simmering over her flesh where they left their gift.
His soft kisses moved up her bicep to her shoulder, and on the flat prominence of the underlying bone that shelved her dark skin, he licked with a cool tongue.
The fine dark hairs of her arm raised with bumps along the skin of her shoulder and neck.
Soft noises escaped with her upbeat breathing.
The free middle fingers of his other hand caressed a trail from her bicep over her elbow, down her forearm to the bracelet on her wrist.
The sharp two canines of his upper row of teeth bared as he scraped the flat ends of his two front incisors on her shoulder where he had licked a moment before.
She uncrossed her legs, letting the fabric of her dampening underwear breathe in an effort to dry out the excitement mixing forth from her body onto the reinforced threads.
The fine receptors in his mouth and nose detected her body's changes.
Kina's eyes rolled back with her head from his ministrations to her arm and shoulder, and she relaxed against the bench seating. If he kept this up, she might explode with any other touch he gave her.
His right hand left her forearm to touch her ear, and she moaned.
"I've fantasized about what would happen if I touched you in these places, Kina…Since I've met you, I admit, I've become obsessed…My body gets so hard when I think about you at night and I'm alone, wondering what you're doing. You feel this," he stroked her soft earlobe again, "…you feel me," his hand turned and caressed down the side of her cheek, Kina's ear tilting towards his knuckles, "…but it's a million times more for me, Kina, when I get to touch you where I want. I'm hard as a rock right now, just from feeling your skin on the back of my hand."
Her hand fled from his.
He seized her thigh and both of them stilled, eyes wide and on each other's…They relaxed and he pushed her thigh wider to the side.
Firm fingers brushed against her inner thighs, searching cautiously deeper between the curves under the crumpling skirt hem riding his wrist and sleeve's cuff.
Pressure tips began to circle the front of her satin underwear, probing steadily as his fingers moved.
He watched her eyes as his head bent to lick her shoulder again.
Exposed along the inner seam of his pants was a hill stretching the metallic threads outwards, lengthening to the middle of this thigh.
"I can see you're ready to let out some steam, Kina. I can take these off," he probed firmer through the underwear, "…and we can both let out that pressure. I'm experienced with other humans…I think I've gotten a few good reviews…Kina, with me, it would be mind-blowing with you holding me inside you."
He rose forward to kiss her ear. His lips just nipped her earlobe.
He covered her neck and earlobe with his mouth and Kina cried out.
He lifted his weight off the bench seat beside her.
His hands spread her knees wider.
The full set of his hands massaged down her thighs, sliding the skirt up to reveal the black satin panel of underwear.
The violet tebral folds along his neck and jawline frilled wide, as did his green eyes saucer, and his smooth crests lowered with his head dropping low between her legs.
His mouth closed over the satin.
He pulled his lips back to graze his teeth on the soft mounds behind the satin panel, teasing and closing only so much.
"I can smell how much you want me, Kina," Cartira almost whined as he pressed his nose into the soft channel of damp underwear and skin, "…I think you're beautiful, and this close to you makes you so fine and hot." His hands tightened on her thighs. "Can I open you wider so I can taste you, Kina? Open your thighs to me."
His tongue came forward without hesitation and he pressed and dragged the tip up along the valley of her seam through her underwear.
A strangled voice burst from her throat, "…Cartir—stop!"
Frozen by her command, his tongue hung partly out of his mouth and drew back in as he turned his face up towards her.
"I'm not ready for this!"
Her fist had gathered the fabric of his suitcoat at his shoulder.
Her other hand was up behind her head, elbow bent. She was holding onto the headrest with her nails digging into the leather as though for dear life.
Brought to heel, he sat back on the floor of the passenger cabin.
His eyes were wide and softening from the excitement he had felt for her, from tuning into her body's signals, and his expression was full of confusion.
"I'm not ready, Cartira."
He reached for her hand that had released his shoulder and now was resting between her thighs, Kina widening her eyes at the initial direction of those fingers again of his, and when he only took her fingers up and kissed the back of her hand with his lips, she relaxed as he nodded his understanding, and returned himself to his seat on the bench at her right.
She turned her face to his, and his lips brushed over hers.
"I'm not ready for that, Cartira."
He smiled and let out a small chuckle with his green eyes creasing in the corners, "…I couldn't tell," and he licked the corner of his upper lip, teasing her with that gaze.
Chapter 13
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She sneezed and blew the rest out over the sink, washed her hands in the running hot water and glanced at the time. A clock over the door read quarter past three.
The melancholy was eating at her and she normally would have worked out to ignore it and help it pass.
The rain and the walk had cooled off the original anger and frustration. Now she was afloat in a morass of self-pity.
Not even her victory against Belle Elle in the ring last night could save her from this "marooned on an island of misery" type feeling.
It felt as though she had been robbed.
Toweling off her hair, …At least the apartment's not leaking heat. She tied another towel around her chest and went out into the hall leading to her bedroom.
She needed to dress and get comfortable.
Pulling on her PJs, she found comfort in the clean, self-assured feeling of sweats to help her relax and lounge while she thought things through.
And because her feet still felt cold from the walk despite the hot shower, she tugged on socks.
Passing by the bathroom again, Kina went into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and pulled out her draining gallon of milk.
The spill of the milk into her short glass mug curled and rolled into itself until she stopped pouring.
She raised the glass and gulped it down swiftly.
The rim left her lips.
Something on the floor in front of the door to the outer building's hallway caught her attention.
"What is that?" She peered downward at the item on the floorboards.
It appeared someone had slipped a folded note through the bottom of her entry door.
Picking up the corner of torn paper between her fingers, Kina opened the note.
Spreading it wide between her thumb and forefinger, she focused her eyes on the careful writing.
She began to read it out loud, but quietly to herself.
"Dear Miss Tian..." Her eyes jumped down to the name at the bottom, "…How the hell did he find out my last name."
She went on reading the rest of it from the top again.
Grabbing her door handle, she unlocked the cap and went out into the hall.
She brought a pen with her and was writing a reply on the back of the note he had written as she crossed to unit 2's door.
Crouching in front of Konis's doorway, she pushed the folded note back in with her written reply on the top showing upward.
She looked down the hallway to see from unit 1 her elderly neighbor watching her and shaking her head. Kina shrugged, raised her eyebrows, and returned to her apartment.
§
Running down the staircase to the first door and springing it open, followed by the next, she skidded out on the ice of the sidewalk the next morning.
Kina checked both ways before darting across the street, intent on Rocky's at the corner.
She waved at Rocky in the storefront window, his head up and down with distracted interest on something else at his countertop.
As she neared the glass doors, the reflection of a black car pulled up behind her.
Had it been any other car but this one slowing down with its door to her heels, she would have ignored it, but she stopped and turned.
The window lowered and Konis was revealed behind the tinting.
"Get in."
Kina turned her head to look behind her at the store and Rocky inside it.
The old man was still distracted with what he was working on at his counter, head down, eyes focused.
With that welling sense of curiosity and danger, Kina turned towards the car again and walked towards it.
Konis reached behind his seat to unlock the back door and began to open it for her. Kina grabbed the window edge and pulled it wider to step in and sit in the seat behind him.
Sitting so close behind him, she had a fair view of the green, blue, and black crests sliding from the top and sides of his skull to a seamless tapering above his neck.
"I'm driving the way to Creighton Falls….I'll drop you off at Glory Fists."
"Thank you…Konis." She looked down at her lap.
He released the clutch and shifted right into second gear, accelerating the car forward with a pressure of the gas pedal, and off they were.
After five minutes into the ride had passed, she broke the silence, "…Why are you helping me, Konis?"
"You reminded me of myself once, someone trying to get by on his own, not knowing how to ask for help. You fight for your piece of life. Right now, you need help."
Kina's lips spread into an embarrassed smile, and she looked out the window.
"I've had to learn the hard way that to ask for help means you're weak…so I help myself."
Konis turned the rear view mirror to contain her profile in it, and nodded his head.
§
Creighton Falls was a half-hour drive from their apartments. Kina opened the door of the car and stepped out onto wet gravel.
She pressed the door closed with her hand and took a step from the side of the vehicle.
The sign above was glowing in her eyes, gold fists smashing together in partitioned neon signs over a slashing bolt of red lightning, and below were the words in bright blue lights, "Glory Fists".
Kina looked over her shoulder at Konis, who was staring at the sign above the entrance.
"Will you…" He hesitated. "Do you think you'll be okay here?"
"I think I should be fine."
"Do you have my card?"
She nodded and touched her pocket.
"Use it when you're ready to be picked up."
Kina watched the car pull over the gravel and start away from her, there alone now in front of Glory Fists.
She turned back to the entrance and headed in.
An awning stretched over the concrete pave stones just under the signage and before the doors to the entrance. Kina was shadowed under it from the glowing lights.
She didn't even have to touch the double doors as these opened upon her taking the step from the concrete onto a red mat just before them.
The place seemed empty at first, so she walked into the gym which was entirely open and any doors were far against the walls leading to rooms she could not see. She turned about, peering where she could for a checkin desk or someone to talk to.
One of the doors opened and a woman stuck her head out, saw Kina, and proceeded to leave the room and head over to greet her at the front of the gym by an office desk in the middle of it all.
She was walking on crutches—hopping more like, on a single leg.
"Are you looking for someone?"
"A woman named Lynda?"
"That's me, Lynda…You're looking for me?" Lynda stopped in front of Kina and gave her a scrutinizing stare, "…Did you fight Belle Elle two nights ago at Wrinkle's?"
"Yeah, that was me."
"You fight better than box vets with over seven years' fighting experience."
Kina smiled through some embarrassment, "…It's just my way of training….I was wondering if you'd let me train here. Wrinkle's was sold to Royal Thomson."
"I heard. Wrinkle told me," and Kina made a slight eyebrow twist at hearing who else had heard the "not so public" news.
Lynda waved her over to the desk and sat, setting her crutches on the side of the chair, "…I used to work Alliance on the 55th Fleet…Lost my leg to Batarian Hegemonists planting LAZ mines in overrun colonies to help slow us from catching up," she pointed at the stump just eight inches short of a knee. "I like to get it out in the open early 'cause everybody wants to ask at some point…Didn't have much say in losing it so I like to keep the conversation at least on my terms," she chuckled, setting her fingers together over a belt of cloth she was wearing as part of a jiu jitsu-style ensemble, her hair shaved on one side of her head, long on the other but only to her chin. "You can train here all you want," she waved to the open floor plan, "…Hell, you can fight in the club fights all you want, too, so long as you're respectful and represent Glory Fists, love."
"That's…that's awesome." Kina was floored. "I…I….can buy the first two months' sessions with what I've brought from my last pot—"
"No way," Lynda's voice became hard, her gray eyes sharp and unflinching, "…You can train my crew that comes here and works out for the competitions….That pot you earned off Belle Elle is yours.….If you want to become part of Glory Fists, you give what you've learned…I won't offer that to anyone else here—only you, Lady Tian…You instruct, and that's your payment to train here, use this facility and its equipment, and compete wherever you want under Glory's name."
Her mouth worked open, "…I'm too young, inexperienced," she hated to say, "….to teach folks how to fight."
"Shut your mouth."
Kina's mouth clamped closed, and her temper went dangerously hot for a second.
"I've seen how how you fight in the ring, Tian, and you fight like an old warrior trapped in a young battle-maiden's body…You're that good, and I can see you thinking…You're different than the rest of the slobs messing around in the box and it's exciting to see something so rare…You can teach, and if you want to come here, I expect it….I'll even pay you for it."
Had she been speechless before, she was dumb now….Kina kicked her ass mentally back into the moment, "…I'll accept…damn…but I need to know if there's a shuttle between here and Bingham Heights…I can't do what you're asking without transportation to and from, and it's a thirty-minute haul just one way."
"How'd you get here?"
She paused, considering Konis, "…A friend drove me."
Lynda stared at Kina's eyes as her hand pulled open a drawer her side of the desk, reached inside, and jangled out some keys on a ring.
"This gym used to be a fall-out shelter. There are rooms underground. You can pick one and sleep in it, make it your home for Chrissakes, Tian, if you handle instruction, training yourself, and opening and closing the Glory Fists each day and night."
"You want me to live here just so long as I open and close the place? Train people?….I'm not sure…"
Lynda dropped the keys loudly on the desk.
"Wrinkle told me good things about you. He said you're driven. You keep your word. Billa says you're smart and the crowd you train with looks up to you—"
"They didn't step up when Thomson took over and I was left dried out by his thugs in the box yesterday, looking for a spar partner…."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Lynda sat forward in her seat. "But you forget that those wannabes aren't anywhere as good as you, nor do they have the friends you have, Tian….and Tommy has a reputation," she sat back again. "I've seen you workout, like I've said, and N7 camps ought to take notes from you…You're just missing some biotech to get their interests, love, but nobody trains like you do…'cept maybe Elle back when she was good…"
"She still is…"
"Was until you beat her, and you'd kill her in a rematch, no doubt. That's why Tommy wants you to throw it if you go back and fight her…Don't look surprised, Tian, Tommy's always looking for a shortcut to the money….Back on Colony Phan, I wish I'd had someone like you running the shots, Tian." Lynda may have unconsciously rubbed the air over a phantom limb as she said that. "Few gems like those with discipline and thirst to win…You got something special and I'm blessed with an eye for such things—such that I survived with."
"Hey Lynda," a young man called from the room where Kina had first set eyes on the woman, "…Maria's got some questions about a scenario we're working through—My bad, you busy?"
"Be right there, Mac." She looked at Kina hintingly, and stood up on one leg pistoling her slow out of the seat as she grabbed her crutches to commence the smooth hop back to the room where the young man waited. The keys were still on the desk.
Kina's eyes went from the young man to Linda's departing back, straight and strong as an arrow between the crutches under her shoulders, then down to the keys.
Chapter 14
The black car pulled up and Kina came out from under the awning to meet it. She opened the back door and got in, Konis turning to check she was altogether.
"How did it go," his blue eyes looked back at her from the rearview mirror as he faced forward and she strapped into her seat.
She stayed quiet and reflective for the moment.
"Thank you, Konis."
"Why are you thanking me?"
"I'm going to move into Glory Fists."
"You're moving into the place?" His fingers tightened around the steering wheel and relaxed. "How did you manage that?"
"The lady who owns that place is fucking crazy," Kina looked at him in the mirror, "…Her name's Lynda, and she's cool."
A sharp houghing sound came from him as he was laughing.
Kina winced her brow in concern, realized he was laughing, and started to smile so hard she had to bite down her teeth to stop her lips from stretching and cracking the cut on her lip still healing from her fight with Elle.
§
They parked in the back lot of the apartment building in Bingham Heights and Kina and Konis both got out of the car.
Kina glanced over at the blue and green of his skin fading into the unique folds of stiff-ridges fanning in spectacular organic proportions from the scaled ridges of his outer face, down into the V of his neck, most which was hidden by his collar. They walked together to the front of the building and went up the stoop, inside.
He opened the first door to let her through.
He reached ahead of her, crossing her front to grasp the next knob and open the second door, letting her start the stairs.
"I want to thank you for that note last night. You didn't need to apologize." Kina waited for him to join her on the stairs.
"I realized I'd overstepped myself." He ascended the stairs beside her, most of the noise coming from her own feet, and she looked down at his and tried to figure out how someone so big could manage not to squeak the boards with his shoes.
They passed the first door on the right and walked on in silence to the second door, hers, and stopped together under the iron character for unit 3.
Kina leaned with her shoulder against the farther doorframe and Konis stood with his shoulder against the frame nearer to the front of the building, looking across the door's path at her. Together, they smiled and his neck and jaw's folds widened and fell.
"I imagine you have not eaten all day. Are you hungry?"
"Konis, are you inviting me to dinner," she maintained a stiffened smile, "…Sure, I'm starved."
"I figured you're one of those starving artist types and you choose not to eat while seeking for your solutions. I asked only because I knew you'd say yes….I hate to disappoint, but it won't be dollar bouillon in a can. Those of us more well-off can afford real meals." At her sarcastic laughter, "…Would you come this way and join me."
"I already said," she left her lean against the wood, "…so lead the way."
They crossed the rug in the middle of the hallway and went to unit 2.
Konis shielded the doorknob with his hand as he unlocked it with his key.
He let the door open ahead of him and glanced at her expectantly. Kina passed him and entered the apartment.
He followed after.
Her first time into his apartment, Kina observed the sparse, immaculate living situation: a bedroom doorway on the right down the hall connected to a living space with seating and consoles for various items, a washroom to the left in the hallway at its middle among mirrors and hooks holding various articles of clothes, and the kitchen passage on the left of the entry door like in her place—except the kitchen was larger than her own, and as she leaned around the dividing dark wall of black moulding and gray wallpaper, she could see a hallway passing to another room farther back and out of view.
Konis moved behind her to pass into the kitchen.
There was a table snugged against the wall lining the kitchen and outer hallway of the building, and he pulled this out to the middle of the kitchen floor.
He brought the two chairs facing each other next and over to the table.
"I'll take your coat and hang it with mine." He removed his long coat.
Kina unzipped her Lion jacket and removed her arms from it.
Konis took hers as she handed it to him and he moved again into the living room to a shallow recess among the moulding pronounced as a jutting of wall between the room and the outer hall, opening the concealed door to the convenient hideaway, and hung each coat on a hanger inside.
Glancing at the interior of the closet as she approached him, Konis turned to Kina as she stopped next to him and he went very still.
"Are you going to try and sleep with me, Konis?"
His eyes narrowed. "Of course not. Why would you think that?…Definitely not."
"I just want there to be, I want to know where you stand and where I stand—I want you to know that it makes things easier for me if I confront it outright, set the expectations…for your information, too….I don't trust a lot of guys….You're polite, hell, helpful, more than any random guy I've met on the street or in a convenience store," her smile lightened her expression, "…but you're new to me…A stranger, but so far a nice one. I've had to learn a lot on my own…Sometimes it's just easier for me to be direct and blunt about what's nagging me on something. You kind of perplex me and I'm trying to figure you out since I'd like to be friends, neighbors, with you…and you've been trustworthy, kind to me so far. I want to know if this is really friendship or some ulterior motive."
She saw he had four eyelids then, all of which blinked before the prolonged stare he gave.
"I don't usually help people who don't contact me by custom methods—known to me, that is—in my trade...When I saw you enter Rocky's, I recognized something about you…and you were different….I saw your face, the way you walked.…I heard your voice….I liked the quality of it. I wanted to listen to you." His eyes folded in the corners as he smiled and shared, "…And I was scared of you if you can believe it…..I'm not one easily scared, especially by—"
"A woman?"
He blinked again, blue irises clear and spanning outward from his pupils, "…I should start cooking. Help yourself to the bathroom in the hall." And he closed the door to the closet and walked by her.
§
"This hits the spot." She sucked the sauce off her fingers after dropping the bones onto her plate and sat back from the table. The smell of chicken lingered in the air, and the kitchen was strewn throughout with pans, cooking utensils, bowls, and cutting boards he'd used to make the meal. She worked each finger into her mouth, chasing after the succulent sauce, salty and sweet, and he watched her lack of manners play out. "I didn't know drells could cook food like this," she smacked her lips and rubbed her hands off on a napkin—to his relief, "…Where'd you learn to cook, Konis?"
He tucked away a wad of rice from between his teeth and swallowed.
Clearing his throat, he brought a napkin to his mouth and wiped.
Lifting his half-empty glass of milk to his lips, he sipped, then returned it next to hers on the table.
His lips spread in a reluctant smile.
"It's takeout from Chen's down the street. I cut it up and re-cooked it while you were in the bathroom."
Kina began to laugh, bunching up her napkin and throwing it at him, "…You should have lied."
He started to laugh, slighter yet so, and batted away the ball of greased, creamy paper as he gazed down on his plate.
She leaned forward onto her knuckles, her elbows pushing her plate forward to make space for themselves on the table, and spent time admiring the intricate color pattern on his angular face.
The array of crenelated folds over his back jaw and neck were exposed, filled in an attractive array of deeper hues of aquas and greens, nearly blues with black speckling throughout. Finer scales along the softer skin were apparent to her.
"What do you call that thing around your neck and face, Konis?…Is it some type of dewlap, like on iguanas?"
His hand covered the left side of his jaw and the folds immediately receded into a less fantastic display of aquas and greens. He cleared his throat again—as if choking—and stood.
"Excuse me."
"Did I say something? Are you embarrassed—I'm sorry—that thing was wide open and it's pretty, I—" she wasn't helping his situation.
"It's a tebris." He turned away from the table and her.
"Konis, what's the matter…"
He didn't reply and began to clean up the dishes and their utensils.
Then, halting himself and feeling badly, he looked down at her socks and spoke.
"Thank you for dining with me."
It was clear to her dinner was ended, and yet she was confused by his sudden switch of behavior. A moment ago they had been laughing and taking their time, and now he was rushing her out by his manner.
"Would you…" She paused, not sure his stance on the matter anymore, "…be able to give me a haul to Creighton Falls tomorrow morning?…I was going to start moving some stuff."
"Certainly." He straightened from the washing machine to look at her.
"Six-thirtyish?" She offered a small smile, and he nodded.
After an awkward spell, he turned away and resumed filling the washer. Kina backed away from her chair and out the kitchen into the next room. She turned and walked over to the closet, grasping the tucked handle, and pulled it open.
She pulled her coat off its hanger, but the hanger end caught that of his coat and moved the heavy article to sway and reveal a glimpse—a compellingly foreboding glimpse—of a long, black barrel and nozzle with a number of unique components and chunky modifications on the very impressive rifle hidden in the corner with its scope pointed towards the ceiling of the closet.
Her free hand grasped the sleeve of his long coat and started to move it away until she realized she was snooping, and she released the heavy fabric.
Kina turned her face over her shoulder to see if he was watching from the kitchen.
Konis was seemingly distracted with his own thoughts, and finalizing the placement of the dishes before he lifted the lid of the washer to close it.
"Just grabbed my coat." Kina closed the closet as he turned.