You're The Only Place – Chapter 3
What's Going On?
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I sighed as I set the paper that I was starring at down. Today was just crawling by, and I was completely bored. I looked at the clock, and with a smile, realized that Paine was training right now. I don't know why, but I decided to pay a visit.
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I grabbed my staff, and walked out onto the practice grounds. Paine was standing before the line of trainees, teaching them how to effectively block with a sword.
"But Miss, what if we are being attacked and the person attacking you isn't using a sword?"
"It's the same principles, just a little different."
"How are they different?"
Paine sighed and rubbed a temple. "You're getting off subject…"
"I'm sorry Miss, I'm just curious, that's all."
"Well, I'll show you when someone attacks me with something other than a sword."
I smiled, and creped up behind Paine. "Is that so?"
She spun around, "Baralai?"
"Think fast." I told her, and then dove to my left.
She drew her sword in one fluid motion, and continued to watch my movements.
I spoke to the trainees. "Defending with any weapon against any weapon is easy. You just have to watch your opponent."
I drew my staff, and leapt at Paine. Her eyes widened slowly, and she countered my attack.
"Don't be afraid to attack Paine, just don't slice me open, okay?" I called out to her.
She snorted, "Easier said than done."
We exchanged blows for a while, the trainees watching in fascination. I faked a move, and Paine fell for it, and I successfully disarmed her. I held the metal part of my staff up to her throat.
"That's not good." She said, looking at the weapon at her throat.
"That's shocking. You always beat me." I told her, retracting my staff.
"I know…" then she smiled at me, "This means you're learning!"
I blushed, "Oh shut up."
Paine turned to her students. "Did you guys catch that?"
No one answered, they just stared at me.
I rubbed the back of my head, "They're not used to seeing their weapons master lose in a fake duel…"
"Oh why thank you Baralai." She said sarcastically.
For the rest of the morning, the both of us continued to train the students. If I may say so myself, we got pretty far.
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After the training session, I ventured a question.
"Do you want to go out to lunch somewhere?" I asked Paine, putting my staff back in my office.
She looked at me for a while, and then smiled at me. "All right. That sounds nice."
I smiled back at her, and then offered her my arm. She blushed, and took it. Since when did she blush? There was something REALLY weird going on right now… but I shoved that thought to the back of my head.
I took her to a café not far from the temple. I ordered water, and she ordered lemonade. We looked over the menu, and she look up at me.
"Baralai, have you even LOOKED at these prices?"
I nodded, "I know, they seem over priced now, but when you eat something here… you'll understand why. They would go bankrupt if they didn't raise their prices."
The waiter came by, and took our orders. While waiting for the food, I caught Paine starring at me.
"What?" I asked, setting down my water.
"Still trying to grasp that you beat me…" she told me, starring into my eyes with her ruby red ones.
I blushed from her starring, and then laughed, "I can assure you that was a once in a lifetime thing. I caught you by surprise. If you know I'm coming, then I'm dead."
"Then I need to work on defending myself when I'm surprised then. Will you help?"
I looked at her, a little puzzled. "Not sure if there is much I can do to help…"
"Perhaps at a specific time everyday, you'll come down to the training grounds, and surprise me."
"But you'll know that I'm coming."
"I won't if you have a span of 15 minutes to surprise me."
I looked at her thoughtfully. "All right, sounds good to me. What time?"
"Depends on what works for you."
I smiled, "Paine… just pick a time."
She blushed again. (What is it with her today?) "How about 6 to 6:15 every night?"
"Fine by me."
By now, the food arrived, and we ate, talking about nothing worth mentioning. Basically about our squad days, and about Paine's time as a Gullwing.
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I walked her back to the temple, or rather her bedroom door.
"I'll see you tonight, all right?" I said, looking into her ruby eyes. I now realized how well I could get lost in those ruby eyes… whoa! Slow down! Focus Baralai, focus!
Paine nodded, and then smiled up at me. "See you then."
"And by all means, if you get bored… PLEASE come to my office and bother me."
Paine laughed, "No problem 'Lai."
I haven't been called that in so long… it brought back wonderful memories from the squad. I guess I wasn't thinking at this point. I knew that I would have my face socked, but I really didn't care at the moment.
I leaned down and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "See you tonight, Paine." I whispered softly into her ear. I straightened up, and walked back to my office.
My hands were in my pockets, and I was humming a general tune.
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A/N: I'm on a roll! Hoot hoot! Read and review, and you'll be my favorite peoples!
-Vincent's Angel of Chaos-
P.S. I just realized that I updated twice in one day… scary. DON'T get used to this, I'm home sick today… ugh, my headache just WON'T go away! Grr…
