Over the weeks, Leona would head to Iori's hotel room every night that she didn't have a mission and work on controlling her emotions. From a combination of her training as a soldier and Iori's incessant comments, it didn't take long for her to finally be able to call the flames to her hands at will. The problem still remained that she couldn't keep them ignited for long periods of time, and on top of it, she was unable to fight with them. Although Iori pointed out that it meant she didn't have full control over her powers, she was still quite happy that she could now control her emotions and call the flames in short bursts. On top of the progress with her training, while Ralf, Clark and her "father" never asked where she went every night, everyone had taken notice of a change in Leona's personality. During the day, she would always go out with Ralf and Clark whenever they asked her to, and while she was still very quiet and soft spoken around them, she smiled more often and gave off an all around comfortable vibe. Both of her teammates had taken notice of it, but neither would ask or comment on it for fear that it would cause Leona to disappear back into her lonely shell of anti-social-ness.
A routine eventually grew around the two fighters: Leona would show up at Iori's hotel room at the same time every night when Iori was cooking, the two would eat in relative silence, then move onto her training. It was the same every night, and every time Leona would continually be surprised at how much of a good cook he was. She finally went so far as to comment on it, actually joking about him using premade packaged goods from the store, but Iori just shook his head, insisting that he cooked it all from scratch.
"If you still don't believe me, show up earlier tomorrow night and I'll show you," he smirked, arms folded behind his head as he leaned back in his chair. He would always finish eating before her.
"Maybe I will," she countered, munching on a carrot. While Leona had always been told to eat as much as she could as fast as she could, simply because as a soldier, you may not know where your next meal came from, or if it -would- come, there was no reason for her to while in Iori's apartment, so she ate leisurely. "Besides, I would like to learn."
"Learn what?"
"To cook." She placed her fork down, her meal finally finished.
Sitting up straighter, forearms resting on the table before him, Iori raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. "You don't know how?"
Leona shook her head. "When does a soldier have time to learn? I can find non-poisonous berries in a forest, or pick out an edible mushroom, just enough to survive in the wilderness, but that's really it."
For a few moments, the red-head was silent, his eyes slightly shaded by his long bangs. What exactly he was thinking, Leona couldn't tell, but eventually, he shrugged and nodded. "Alright. Guess that's something else I have to teach you."
"You don't have to," Leona shook her head. "You've already helped me out more than I ever expected. Besides, there isn't anything I can really pay you with." That was one thing she had been worried about. The first time she approached him, he made it sound as though he wouldn't help her for free. Leona didn't exactly have much money, so she wasn't sure how she'd be able to repay him.
Iori grinned and waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. Besides, it might be fun. You know how to have fun, right?"
She frowned, her lower lip pouting out just slightly in annoyance. "Must you always poke fun at me?"
There was that laugh again, the one she had heard only a few weeks ago shortly after he had tried to strangle her. Immediately, her frown disappeared, but she continued to watch him.
Getting up from his spot at the table, Iori left the small kitchen and made his way towards his bed, sitting down on the corner of it and waiting for Leona to follow him. As she usually did, she followed him, grabbing one of the chairs near his bed and moving it so she could sit across from him.
"Now let's see how long you can sustain the flames," he nodded, leaning back on a palm and staring at her hands as she raised them into the air.
Staring at her own hands as she raised them in front of her, Leona concentrated on a mental image, the one she had begun to use a week earlier, one that immediately made her angry and caused the blue flames to burst from her skin. She concentrated on an image of Goenitz. His obnoxious blue outfit, his smug grin, his echoing, evil laugh, his multicolored hair. Although he was long dead, the mere thought of him caused Leona to be furious because -everything- since the 1997 Tournament was his fault. And with the briefest thought of the leader of the Orochi Eight, blue flames ignited around her hands, crackling quietly and licking the air. So caught up in her own anger, she barely registered Iori speaking to her:
"Try to keep them ignited for as long as possible. Keep the image in your mind, keep your anger going."
Smoldering in her silent fury, the blue-haired warrior continued to stare at her hands, imagining Goenitz's face in the middle of the flames. She wanted nothing more than to crush his head, to cleave it in half with her hands, to cause him to scream in dying pain. As her anger increased, so did the size of the flames. Eyes narrowing, she rotated her wrists so that her palms faced the ceiling, and with a jerk of her will, the blue flames gathered in the center of her palms. Rather than encase her hands in the flames, the fire moved until it collected into two small balls of flame, one in each palm. It had been as far as she had ever gotten in her training, to will the flames to her palms. After that, she had only been able to keep them there for about a minute, her anger, by that time, having ebbed away.
Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the flames themselves, banishing any thought of Goenitz in the process, and when she opened her eyes again, she saw, to her amazement, that the flames were still there. Normally, the moment she got rid of any thoughts of the blond and black haired man, the flames would disappear. Flexing her hands a few times, she tested the flames, moving her hands around, left and right, up and down, circular, but the flames continued to lick the air, continued to stay collected in her palms. Aside from the first time she had been able to conjure anger, and thus the flames, this was the most progress she had made in two weeks, and she actually smiled while staring at her powers.
Lifting her head to look at Iori, she opened her mouth to say something, but paused when she found him staring at her face and not her hands. Her entire face felt warm, and she let her hands settle in her lap, the flames extinguishing in the process. Rather than look away, Leona stared right back at him, the smile fading from her lips, her heart beating just a little bit faster. Before she could say anything, Iori shook his head and stood up.
"Keep trying to sustain the flames longer," he called over his shoulder as he promptly turned away from her and disappeared into the bathroom.
For a few moments, she stared after him, confused, the sound of the shower turning on registering in her ears. She never understood why he would sometimes just get up in the middle of their training and take a shower, as this had been the third time it happened since she first confronted him. She also didn't understand why he looked at her the way he had been looking at her moments ago. It was as though he wanted something from her, but was too afraid to ask. With a sigh, Leona shook her head, pushing the thoughts away so she could concentrate on the flames once more.
While he showered, Leona stayed seated where she was, continually calling to her mind and then banishing images of Goenitz. Each time she got rid of any thought of him, the flames would stay crackling at her hands longer and longer. After a good twenty minutes, it had gotten to the point where Leona could sustain the flames for a long period of time, longer than she had ever held them before. It occurred to her that the blue flames were -her- powers as one of the descendants of the Orochi Eight, and if that were the case, she would have to learn to fight with them.
Getting up from her seat, she moved away from the bed, centering herself in the room as best she could, her hands at her sides, the flames still crackling around them. Once she was certain she wouldn't set anything on fire, she spread her legs and bent her knees, arms raising before her as she fell into her normal fighting stance. For a few moments, she rocked back and forth, moving her weight between her feet, just getting used to the feel of the fire at her hands while in a fighting environment. Once certain that the flames would stay put, she began throwing punches out in front of her, two with her right followed by one with her left. After a few punches, the flames sputtered out, but she quickly recalled them to her hands before starting over again.
Eventually, she realized that it was all well and good that she could punch while the flames encased her hands, but it wouldn't really do anything for her in the long run. Brow furrowing in thought, she stood back up straight, bringing her hands in front of her to once more stare at the flames. She began calling to mind memories of previous tournaments, more specifically, memories of Kyo's and Iori's fights, their fighting styles and the moves they used which also incorporated their flames. It never really dawned on her before that not -all- of their moves centered around their flames. Picking one move that the two had in common out of her soldier's mind, Leona let her left hand drop to her side, keeping the right bent at her waist, fist clenched, flames extinguished.
The best way she could explain the move was that a short burst of their powers was pushed through the hand in a punch, the flames sparking in front of the fist, in turn, when the fist came in contact with an opponent. Testing the idea, she punched the air a few times, flexing the arm out before attempting to call the flame to her right hand. A few times, she would call the flame too soon, and her hand would ignite before the punch was fully thrown out, causing her hand to simply be covered in blue flames. No spark, no burst of power. Frowning, she continued trying the same thing over and over again, each time the flames appearing later and later in the punch. Finally, she got the timing down, holding back on her power until her punch went through, calling the flames at the last possible second. The small explosion that detonated in front of her curled fist wasn't anywhere near as large or fancy as Kyo's or Iori's, but it was something.
She repeated the process, throwing out a punch and calling the flames at the last moment, for a few minutes until she felt she had the hang of it, then brought her other fist up and did the same thing with it, eventually falling into the same routine as before: two with her right, one with her left.
"Not bad."
Startled by the voice, Leona quickly turned around to see Iori standing in the doorway of the bathroom, arms crossed over his bare chest, leaning against the door jam with his left shoulder, a white towel draped around his neck and over his shoulders. Cheeks flushed, heart pounding, Leona shook her head, having been so caught up in her own mind and personal training that she had completely forgotten about Iori. The sudden sound of his voice had completely taken her off guard.
"Sorry," he smirked, "didn't mean to startle you."
"No, it's my fault," she shook her head again, her muscles loosening up as her body calmed. "I shouldn't have let my guard down."
His lower eyelids raised up as he watched her. "Why do you do that?"
Her brow furrowed.
"Always keep your guard up as if you're about to be attacked. I wouldn't hurt you."
Leona shrugged, unable to find any words to reply with. Her face remained flushed and her heart continued to beat as she just stared at him, watching as he crossed the room, coming to a stop mere inches from her. She raised her head up to look up at him, trying to level their eyesight despite his four inch height advantage.
"I mean it," he continued, his voice dropping to low tones as he lowered his head. "I wouldn't hurt you." Reaching out, he brushed her hair away from the left side of her neck and leaned down, brushing the tip of his nose over the skin of her neck, right over the pulsating veins which reflected the beat of her heart. He lingered near the center of her neck, inhaling deeply.
From surprise and confusion, Leona wasn't sure what to do, how to act or what to say. Her eyes widened, vision blurring before quickly refocusing as various scents met her nose: the smell of his shampoo, his skin, faint traces of his cologne all mingled with a light scent of their dinner, as if she could lick his neck and taste exactly what they had eaten an hour ago. Despite herself, she started to mimic him, her head tilting to lightly press the tip of her own nose against the side of his neck, inhaling the mixture of scents his skin seemed to emit. She felt completely and totally light-headed, as though a fog were drifting through her mind, everything around her seeming to move in slow motion.
"It's getting late," he muttered, pulling away from her. "You should probably get going."
Leona nodded, moving back as well. Wordlessly, she turned away from him and started walking towards the door, each step seeming to clear up the miasma in her mind, her thoughts becoming clearer and more coherent.
"Come earlier tomorrow, and I'll show you how to cook."
Turning to look back towards Iori, she found him smirking, and she nodded in response, a tiny grin pulling at the corners of her mouth. With that, she left his hotel room to return to the barracks.