I awoke to the sensation of a pair of boots hitting me in the ass through my bedsheets. I grunted and swatted near them. I jolted upward in time to catch my heavy winter coat with my face. I sat there stunned, pulling the wooly fabric off my head a moment later.

Leila gave a coy smirk and spun on her bare heel back down the hallway out of my bedroom. She was wearing her long faded gray shirt and nothing else. I was stunned and still half asleep but I managed to notice her muscular thighs tensing and relaxing as she walked out of view.

"I said I'd get these tomorrow." I called, tossing my coat onto a chair.

"It's been tomorrow for thirteen hours already." She yelled back. I shook my head. Did she work for me? I wasn't sure anymore. I woke up so suddenly I hadn't really recalled everything yet. Recalled the burns on my knees and elbows and the soreness in my stomach muscles from the tension. We were at it for a long time last night. Maybe longer than we should have been.

Right as I climaxed with Leila, right as my mind filled with exploding white light and my eyes shut, I saw Terra. I was entangled in her luminescent green hair and pale skin, making love to her. She was screaming in some otherworldly echoing voice that rattled my spine. Here eyes were white rays. She began to transform, her body igniting into a purple blaze that consumed me and we both burned alive.

I sat there in bed, sweating a little from the vivid recollection. My heart thudded in my chest. Get a grip, Sabin. You are not in love with Terra Branford. She is your ally, your friend. Your weird friend. The apple of your brother's eye.

My brother. I thought of Edgar and Terra together in that bar in Narshe without me. Edgar spinning stories around her, dazzling her like he claimed. What if it really played out that way? What the hell gave him the right, after years of us all being mutual friends, to pounce on her like this all of a sudden, like she was his for the taking? And why the hell was it any concern of mine?

"Come on, get your lazy ass out of bed." Leila hollered from the kitchen. "I'm not eating by myself out here." I heard her running multiple pans at once, plating food up while she worked the stove. She could have worked in a five-star restaurant. She could be a professional athlete with that body of hers. What the hell was she doing cleaning my house?

I rubbed my eyes and hopped to my feet, pulling a sleeveless shirt over my bare chest. I'd put on a pair of fight shorts before going to sleep. I hated sleeping nude. My foot made a loud bump when I landed on it. In the course of last night's events, Leila didn't even notice my foot. I was careful to keep it away from her so she didn't brush against it with her own feet and really kill the mood. I put slippers on just to avoid an awkward breakfast conversation.

The table was set by the time I got to the kitchen. She laid out a spread of pancakes, bacon and eggs prepared three different ways. A basket of toast sat in the center of the table. She was wiping down the counter looking at me out of the corner of her eye, curiously. I could tell she really wanted me to be impressed. Somehow all I could feel was really, really guilty.

I mean, I'm sure this kind of thing was routine for the maids at Edgar's place, but Leila was no routine maid. I'm sure that's why Edgar sent her to me. I couldn't picture her responding well to his undoubted advances on her. I couldn't see him responding well to her attitude either.

She washed her hands in the sink and dried them and walked over to the seat across the table from mine, her hands at the bottom of her long shirt, playing with the hem. She sat down and put two eggs and one pancake on her place with serving spoons.

"That's all you're gonna eat?" I asked, surprised. There was like, a meal for four on the table and she barely made a dent in it.

"Yeah, right." She said. "I'll eat you under the table." I looked at her skeptically. She giggled, her mouth full of scrambled egg. "That sounded naughty, didn't it?"

"Only a little…and no you won't." I replied, stacking three flapjacks on my plate with two eggs over. I dug in, the sweet fluffiness exploding in my mouth. Man, could this girl cook. Part of me wanted to bitch about the unhealthiness of it, but it was too damn good.

I caught a glimpse of her watching me intently devouring her cooking. She never stayed around to watch me eat. She either went home for the night or went to go tidy up the dojo before classes started. She beamed a little at how ferociously I ate, while still steadily working on her portion.

"My housemate is totally going to wonder where I was last night." She said, mouth full. I shrugged.

"Just tell her I came home late and you crashed here. She wont suspect anything." She laughed, dismissively.

"Yeah right. She's not dumb. She worries about me all the time alone in a house with a big oaf like you." She hid a smile. I smiled back but for some reason I wasn't really enjoying her sarcasm. I was distracted. To be honest, I really didn't want to talk about last night with her. It was inevitably going to warp the way things worked around here.

"Tell her if she's worried, she can come check it out herself." I joked. She rolled her eyes.

"Hilarious." She finished chewing, swallowed, and put her fork and knife on her empty plate. "So you're teaching class this afternoon?" She asked. I'd completely forgotten.

"Oh, yeah, I guess. Sure." She raised an eyebrow, standing up and pushing her chair in.

"Well I guess I'll go open up your dojo then." She rinsed her plate in the sink and walked out into foyer. I was a little stunned. I half expected her to sit and talk more, putting off her daily work. I was dreading it actually. Maybe that was arrogant of me to assume.

----------\

"Sir, what happened to your foot?" Marcus asked, pointing to the tightly wrapped bandage from ankle to toe. I nervously took a deep breath.

"I sprained it doing some work, I'll be alright. Let's get moving, guys. Six by ten circuit today, got it?" They all groaned. Apparently Marcus had gone easy on them in my absence. They lined up in rows and began cutting through the bodyweight calisthenics in sequence. Six sets of ten reps, eight different exercises that took them through all the major positions and muscle groups.

They grunted and broke into sweats halfway through the second set. They went from doing high jumps, dropping into pushups, then crunches. No rest. Just a minute of jogging between sets. I really wanted to work out with them to get my mind off things, but no one would buy my sprained ankle story then. Instead, I paced around, pointing out bad form here and there.

They took a quick water break and gathered around for the lesson. I was teaching a modification of the Seoi-Nagi, the classic judo shoulder throw. It was a lot easier to hit in a real fight or a competition than the traditional Seoi-Nagi. Normally you grab the arm, backstep your hips parallel to theirs, push up on your heels and send them hurtling over your shoulder. Work's great on training partners in demos.

However, when the guy's moving, resisting, pulling, pushing, it's not so simple to land. It's a basic move but it's real hard to implement in a struggle with a strong or experienced fighter.

"If you bang your inside knee down on the backstep" I demonstrated on Marcus, turning my hips into him, trapping his arm against my shoulder, dropping down on my closest knee, facing away from him.

"You can bring his whole body over your shoulder without loading him up on your heels, lifting him, or tossing him." I tugged gently and Marcus rolled over my shoulder, breaking his fall by slapping his hand firmly on the mat. "You can use this in a real fight very easily, because he won't have time to push you away, or slide off your hip. If you bring the knee down fast enough as you're trapping his arm, he'll go right down when you pull him. You can hit this move freestanding, off the tie-up, or in the clinch. I personally recommend using it in the clinch, as it's the safest, most sure way to get the throw without leaving yourself open to get punched." I lectured. Marcus stayed put on the mat, in case I needed to demonstrate anything else. My boys all stood around, mentally replaying the move in their heads, nodding slowly.

"Got it? Alright, pair off and give it a shot." I commanded. Seconds later the dojo was thundering with hands slapping the mat and sharp exhalations. I paced around the mat, calling out the occasional "Nice!" Diago was executing the drop Seoi-Nagi was perfect form, as usual. I immediately doubted his ability to pull it off under pressure, though. I'd test him later. The fight mojo would be instilled in that boy if it was the last thing I did.

I was getting good at walking on my foot like it was a normal foot. I was in no way used to it though. I wondered if Terra was having any luck with her research. She knew a lot about magic, more than any of us. She'd been using it since she was a young Imperial officer, she also had the natural ability as a half-Esper. Though that side of her supposedly vanished, I wonder if she still remembered the way it all worked.

I thought of her sitting up late, pouring over old books and guides of hers, trying to find a way to heal me. I wondered if she was concerned with me as a comrade or as more than that. I wondered how she'd feel if she knew I thought of her when I was with another woman.

She'd heal my foot back into flesh, we'd embrace in joy, I'd kiss her. She'd look longingly at me, I'd let her wild hair down and run my fingers through it, we'd…

Leila was watering the plants on the patio behind the doorway in the hot June sun, her feet in sandals, her eyes squinting a little. I turned away before she saw me looking at her. What was I doing?

Terra still flickered in front of my eyes. She was looking at me over her shoulder. She wanted me to follow her wherever. I shook my head, trying to clear it. I needed to think clearly before I did something stupid.