Mako's Message: So! New chapter. Same week. Hell yeah. ... At least I think it's the same week. Is it the same week? I have no sense of time anymore.
Anyway, the chapter took an unexpected turn for the fluffy and I hope you all enjoy.
Today was a good day.
"Why?" you might be asking. I'll give you the answer in the form of a question.
What's Black and Blue and Red all over?
Katie Deauxma!
Unfortunately the red was just from mat burns, not blood.
Still, I got to beat the fuck out of Katie and Dave didn't stop me. It was awesome!
I told Katie to join us for our morning jog since that first time. The bitch actually kept up better than Angela.
Anyway, we jogged to the new training center. There's not much there yet. Just some mats and a refrigerator full of gatorade and power bars. They were still impressed by it. All three of them are seriously excited to see the place when it's finished.
When we started training, I told them their first lesson would be how to fall down.
And then I spent the next hour knocking them on their ass. Or their face. It was a lot of fun. For me.
I'm not a sadist though, I had Dave help me give them a couple demonstrations on how to fall without getting hurt first. It's not MY fault they're slow learners.
After the first hour I gave them a five minute break then a choice. We could either keep learning about falling, or I could work on evaluating their fighting skills.
They chose to have me evaluate them. I found it funny that they'd rather hit my fist with their face than hit the floor with their ass. But that's what they wanted, so that's what we did.
After the first minute I got the impression that they hadn't understood what I meant. But they'd made their choice and had to deal with it.
I wasn't TOO rough on them though. I mean, I didn't use my feet or knees on them or anything like that.
So, after they both couldn't get up anymore, I spent the next ten minutes going over the basics of what they were doing wrong. Then I told them to practice against each other while I worked with Dave, and that if one of them hadn't hit the mat at least once in the first five minutes I was going to come back and REALLY kick the crap out of them.
I didn't say I wasn't going to do anything permanent to them though, because I think they're both starting to think I will, and I want them to keep thinking like that for awhile.
Katie was definietly more hesitant about hitting Angela than Angela was about hitting Katie. They both got over it pretty quickly though.
While Dave and I were working on a disarm, I kept catching him glancing over at them, and it was really starting to annoy me so I finally called him on it. He looked over at them again as Angela and Katie were trying to force each other's arm behind their back, and then back at me, smiling like a dork and asked, "Is it wrong that I'm enjoying watching that?"
I glanced over as Katie seemed to win, but then Angela took one ofher legs out from under her and they both fell to the mat and started grinding Katie's face into the mat. I looked back at him and said, "If it is, I don't wanna be right."
Then I punched him in the side of the head and said, "But you need to focus."
Whenever it looked like they were lagging, I went over and kicked Angela and Katie around until they got back on their feet. When they were too worn out to get back up, I said, "I hope by now you've realized that I'm doing this for a purpose."
And Angela guessed, "You're trying to make us give up?"
I said, "Well, yes, but I'd still be doing this part even if I wasn't."
Then Katie said, "It's because on the street we wont be allowed to rest. We have to fight until we win."
The fact that Katie got it right annoyed me, and I glared at her as I said she was, but I guess I shouldn't really be surprised. She's actually been out on the streets and gotten into real fights. I also added, "And you're not going to be up against just one, or even two people. You could easily be up against three to five people at a time, or more. And you may not be able to call it a night after winning one. Especially if you're going to work with Justice forever or fight against The Motherfucker and The Cunts. You could have one fight after another after another after another. Or just one huge fight that seems to never end. That was a taste of that. You sure you want to keep going?"
They both nodded so I showed them how to throw a proper punch, set them up with a mat, and told them to do twenty striked with each hand, then switch, and keep doing that until I told them to stop.
It was kinda weird after that, because it actually started to feel normal. Dave and I were doing our thing, and Angela and Katie where over there punching the crap out of the mat.
When I called a lunch break they'd both beaten their hands red and raw, almost to the point of bleeding. Shame they didn't, I would have actually been impressed with them if they had.
I sent Katie out to this coffee shop/cafe thing down the street to get some sandwiches, and while she was gone I sat down with Dave against the wall and asked Angela if she wanted to keep going, cause it was only going to get harder. She said, "If you can do it, I can do it."
I grinned at that, and Dave said, "Ha! I dunno. Mindy's a breed apart."
And with how good I was feeling already that almost made me blush. I snuggled up to him and he put his arm around me and his hand on my shoulder, but then he put it on the floor beside us and I was like, "godamnit"
Dave had his eyes closed so he didn't see Angela put her hands together by her face and look at us like, "Aww, how cute."
I gave her the finger.
When Katie came back we ate and I gave them an idea of what I had planned, and for them to meet up with us the next morning on the same route we took today for another session.
After that, Dave had to get ready for work, so we called an end to it. Katie left pretty quick, and Angela asked if I wanted to go to the pool with her to cool off. A swim sounded good so we went, but when Angela went to change into her suit she saw how bruised she was and decided against it.
So we spent the rest of the afternoon at her house watching TV and doing "normal", until it was about time for Marcus to get home and I left to go work on the case with him some more.
He brought Chinese and we didn't even bother taking it out of the boxes. It was awesome.
When we decided we weren't going to make any more progress that night, he started asking me about my day, and when I started telling him about training Angela and Katie he actually listened to me. When I told him about the "teaching you to fall down" part, he laughed and said, "I bet you enjoyed that."
So then I asked him about his day, and he said he wasn't allowed to tell me about a lot of it, but he gave me some vague details, like how this one case was giving him hell, and how they caught this other guy who wanted as part of a car theft ring.
I said, "Obviously a group not working with D'amico or anyone."
And he just kinda stopped for a second and said, "You're right, actually. They have no known affiliations with any larger organized crime families. I've actually enjoyed working on this one, since the department is actually functioning the way it's supposed to."
And I said, "Well, hopefully D'amico wont be around for much longer and things can be a little more like they're supposed to."
And he laughed and said, "Amen to that."
So yeah. Today was a good day. In a lot of ways.
