Will things get better? Read the chapter, I'm not gonna tell ya!
…
The next day when Sylvia came in, holding Nicky, she couldn't see Perry in reception, where it was arranged that she would meet him. She waited there for about ten minutes before someone she recognised came down in the elevator and began talking to the receptionist.
After he had finished, Sylvia quickly went over to him and said, "Excuse me? Are you Perry's friend?"
The Chihuahua nodded. "You must be Sylvia, the agent Perry's training. I'm Pinky."
Sylvia shook Pinky's paw. "Oh, and this is my son, Nicky."
"Doggy!" Nicky jabbed his finger at Pinky.
"How old is he?" asked Pinky with a smile as he tickled Nicky under his chin, to the baby platypus's delight.
"Five weeks."
"He's cute." Pinky stepped back. "Anyway, did you want Perry?"
"Yes. Usually he meets me in reception but he isn't here today."
"He probably fell asleep in his office," Pinky chuckled. "He does that a lot. Come on, I'll take you up there."
"Thanks."
As Sylvia followed Pinky, she had to stretch her legs as she walked. All of her limbs were still feeling stiff from the night before. I guess I'm going to have to get used to it if I'm going to be doing this every day.
Nicky behaved very well on the way up. He pointed out random things and said their names—or he thought he did. The word "window" came out as "widow" and the word "duck" somehow came out as "mandam". But Sylvia kept giggling and tickling him to keep him happy. She even hummed Hushabye Mountain under her breath, which apparently made him feel sleepy, because he fell asleep the moment they got up to the office floor.
Pinky went into Perry's office while Sylvia waited awkwardly outside with Nicky. The Chihuahua grinned. He had been right: Perry was indeed asleep at his desk. On his desk was a photo of Edith that had a tear through it, clearly torn off a wall in anger. Pinky bit his lip and gently woke Perry up.
"What…?"
"Perry, Sylvia is here."
If Pinky expected Perry to panic or at the very least get up and get ready straight away, he was disappointed. Perry sighed heavily and promptly rolled off his chair. Rubbing his head, he got up off the ground and stretched.
"She only has three weeks," Pinky reminded his best friend.
"Don't think I don't know that," hissed Perry.
Pinky stepped back. "I'm sorry."
"Just get out."
Perry turned away, so he missed the tears that threatened Pinky's eyes. The Chihuahua nodded sadly and said, "I'll…I'll get out of your way."
Pinky went to the door and caught Sylvia's eye. "He's just coming," he said quietly, before heading off to find Natasha.
Sylvia wondered what Perry had said slash done to make Pinky sad like that, but she had no time to dwell on it; Perry came out of his office cubicle at that moment. Sylvia automatically stood up a little straighter. "Sir?"
"Call me Perry," said the teal platypus grumpily as he walked past her.
Surprised, Sylvia followed. "Oh…okay."
Maybe he's mellowed a bit overnight?
"When I'm not annoyed with you. And I'm expecting to be very annoyed with you."
Aaaaand we're back.
Back in the gym, Sylvia placed Nicky back in the pen she had created on the blue gym mat.
"Is he going to be quiet today?" grumbled Perry.
"Yes."
"How do you know?"
"I'm prepared today."
Sylvia placed Moofie and a red rattle beside Nicky.
"A rattle. That's going to be quiet," said Perry sarcastically.
"It's empty. It was driving me crazy with the noise so I emptied it. He doesn't care, though. He likes swinging it around and hitting it on the ground."
"Oh."
"And chewing on it."
"He doesn't have any teeth."
"He's strengthening his gums."
"Oh," Perry said again.
Once Sylvia was sure Nicky would be happy, she stood up straight and went over to Perry. "What are we going to be doing today?"
"I thought we could put some of the offensive and defensive moves into action today." Perry looked just as annoyed as ever, but there seemed to be a glint in his eye that Sylvia didn't like. "By sparring."
Sylvia's eyes widened and she automatically took a step back. "Oh…o-okay."
"Get into the pose I taught you."
Sylvia obeyed. Perry faced her and got into the same position. "Don't put much force into it, we're only training."
Yeah, like I'm the one who's likely to put too much force into it.
But for the first few minutes, Sylvia managed to half-impress Perry. She had told the teal platypus that she was a quick learner, and it was showing. She remembered almost all the moves that Perry had taught her yesterday.
But after a minute more, Sylvia realised Perry was putting a lot more force into his blows. She was struggling to deflect them.
"Mummy!" yelled Nicky all of a sudden.
Her concentration lapsed for just a moment, but it was enough for Perry to find an opening. His fist slammed into her face, just below her eye, sending her down. Pain erupted through the left side of her face and she clutched her eye in pain.
"I-I'm…" Perry stammered. For once, he didn't look annoyed or sad. Then his normal look settled back on his face and he snapped, "Don't let your guard drop. Not even for a second."
Sylvia struggled not to cry, partly from her teacher's harshness, but mostly from the pain. Painful tears leaked out of her left eye as she dabbed at her face and pulled her fingers away. There was no blood but she knew that she was going to have a black eye for a while.
"Mummy!"
Sylvia drew herself up from the floor. Her leg felt painful from where she had hit it but she limped over to her son and stroked his head, saying, "It's okay, Nicky. Mummy's okay."
"Moofie?" said Nicky uncertainly.
"Moofie," Sylvia said, putting a weak smile on her face.
That seemed to satisfy Nicky. He let out a contented squeak and started attacking the noiseless rattle. Sylvia smiled genuinely as she watched her son play for a minute, before limping back over to Perry. To her surprise, he handed her an ice pack.
"Take ten," he said.
Sylvia nodded her thanks.
…
When her phone screen lit up with a FaceTime call from Sampson that night, Sylvia panicked. She had forgotten he was going to call her and therefore had not tried to hide her black eye. She had no time to do it now so she bit her lip and answered the call. Sampson appeared on screen, smiling. However, that smile soon disappeared.
"Syl, your eye!"
"What eye?"
"Your black eye! Did Perry do that to you?"
"It was an accident! We were sparring and Nicky distracted me and Perry accidentally hit me but it wasn't his fault, it was mine for being distracted!" Sylvia babbled.
Sampson narrowed his eyes. "Syl. Don't protect him."
"I'm not," Sylvia protested. "That really is what happened." She aimed the phone screen at Nicky, who was standing up in his cot again. "Tell him, Nick."
"Cow tastes nice," Nicky said solemnly.
"Cow?" said Sampson's half-amused voice.
Sylvia quickly turned the phone screen back to herself and explained, "It is not what you think it is! One of Perry's friends gave Nicky a cow-shaped sweet."
Sampson sighed. "It's day two and already you have a visible injury."
"Which is not Perry's fault."
"I never said it was. I just…I know you're not going to quit so let me just tell you to be careful."
"Okay."
"I'm being serious."
"Me too."
Sampson rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "Syl, you've done a week's worth of training in two days. You have to make Perry tone it down."
"I'll try." Sylvia gave a smile.
"You're not going to ask him, are you?"
Sylvia grimaced. "I just don't want to cause any trouble."
"Sylvia-!"
"Okay!" Sylvia held her hand up. "I'll try. I really will."
"You better." Sampson gave the screen a death look. "Or I'll begin sprouting those wings."
"You can challenge him to a duel when you get back," Sylvia offered.
"Can't. I'm going straight from Rio to England to meet you when you get back. Hugh's coming over next week, though. I'll get him to beat Perry up."
Sylvia giggled. Then she paused. "Thanks for caring so much about me."
"Of course. You're my sister. Anyway, gotta go. Love you."
"Love you too."
…
In other words, no. They didn't get better XD if anything they got worse…
Also: let's all just agree that Sampson is the best big brother ever XD