Chapter 14

She landed a hard punch to his upper arm, and it would have landed on his face if he had not been so fast. She cursed it and tried again, anticipating his block, and derailing it with her one hand, and landing a great blow at his jaw with her left hook. He was taken back for a few steps by the blow, knowing that if this simulation training program hadn't had the same rules as the Matrix, and he'd been an ordinary, he would most likely been completely out of it.

But now, he would have to settle with seeing stars twinkle.

Knowing she had affected him, Trinity used her superiocy at the moment to kick him in the side, making him double over and kneel at his side, holding his broken ribs. She smiled as she ran forward to him, stopping with her hands inches from his face, ready to snap his neck. He looked up at her hands, seeing her self satisfied smile, and he could not help but smile, too.

She backed away from him, offering a hand to help him up. He took it, but winced as he pulled himself up and could feel the pain in his side as he did so.

" We should change the settings so that pain wouldn't be so easy to feel, " he said to her and she could do nothing but smile as a first reaction. Ghost had seemed distracted when fighting her today, and she couldn't figure out why, but also knew that he wouldn't give her a good answer even if she asked.

" Now, where's the fun in that?" Ghost just smirked at her, and sat down on one of the rocks in the atrium, the same rock that himself had blown off a corner of after missing a shot at Trinity. Trinity brushed off her pants and sat down on the bench in front of him, looking at him. Just when she was about to say something, a voice could be heard in the voiceover of the program.

" Great fight, you guys. Glad I wasn't there, Ghost, " Neo said through the loudspeaker in the small monitor in the simulation room where Trinity and Ghost had just sparred. Neo had watched them for a few minutes, and was happy to see Trinity spar with someone more on her own level, it made the fight more evolving for her. But she had obviously picked up a lot of things from their sparring together, she had just kicked Ghost's ass from here to next Thursday.

Ghost just waved with his hand up into the sky, knowing that Neo would see it as if he waved directly to him. Neo grinned, asking if he should plug them out and they both agreed. A few clicks by Neo later they both opened their eyes to see the roof in the room, and Trinity could feel the small spike being removed from her head, and looking into familiar brown eyes as she rubbed her neck.

" Hey, " she greeted him and he smiled, stopping a moment before moving over to Ghost. " Hey yourself, " he answered and Trinity did not go amiss of the huskiness in his voice, knowing that he had spoken too subtle for Ghost to hear, but too clear for her to hear.

Neo moved over and unplugged Ghost and then offered a hand to pull him up, but Ghost did not take up on the offer, instead he just shook his head.

" Nah, man. I'm just going to lie here and collect my thoughts for a while. Yeah." Neo laughed and even Ghost had to muster a smile at the situation.

Neo joined Trinity again and placed an arm around her waist, looking into her eyes for a short while. Ghost watched them envily.

" You guys can leave if you want, I'll clean up here, " Ghost offered, and Trinity looked at him. She did not move too much, she did not want to manage to squirm herself out of Neo's grip, it felt too good.

" You sure?" she asked him and he nodded. As Neo still kept on watching Trinity, Ghost wondered if Neo was plain stupid or just took it for something else, when Ghost watched his girlfriend with such lust in his eyes, and neither of them noticed.

" Yeah, go. See you tonight?" Trinity and Neo both nodded and before they left the room. Trinity mouthed a thanks and Ghost just waved at her, dismissing her.

Trinity had kicked his ass in there, and Ghost knew it. And just when he had hoped he would chat a few quality minutes with her, even if it was in an unreal environment, miracle boy had come to the rescue. Ghost knew he shouldn't be jealous, but he couldn't help it anymore.

Not when he always saw his brightest star being lead away by another moon than himself… but he guessed that was the way it was.

Twinkle, twinkle.