AN: This is a rewrite of the sparring match in Chapter 2 of A Fresh Cup of Coffee from Fox's POV.


Fox bounced on the balls of his feet, anxious to start the match. He didn't want to spar with Velvet. She was injured - none of them wanted to right now - but had practically begged for the chance, and so Coco had caved.

His partner didn't need to warn him to be careful - to go easy on Velvet - but he could hear the warning in her voice as she told Velvet to not go easy on him.

He let his semblance open up so he could feel Velvet across the ring. She'd been really cagey about her weapon when they were talking about it the day before, so he had no idea what to expect. That was fine by him - he wanted more practice going into combat situations with little information.

"Begin!"

Step one would be to close distance - Coco would give him hell if he shot Velvet from afar.

There was an almost imperceptible shift in Velvet's aura as her semblance activated - growing and changing slightly to better mirror Coco's, not that it was that dissimilar to begin with. He filed that piece of information away for later, intending to ask -

The sound of his partner's gun spinning up made him stumble, thoroughly derailing his train of thought.

Years of training with Coco had him moving without needing to think - dodging the hail of bullets as he yelled at her. "No fair, partner! Give a man warning before you loan out your weapon."

Her laughter made him smile, but the denial of his accusations made him curious. There was no mistaking the sound for anything but her weapon.

It was something to figure out later, first he would need to close distance, force Velvet to do something else.

Her aura shifted again and he stopped as it grew larger, more solid. That felt like -

He ducked just in time to avoid a blow from Yatsuhashi's sword, cursing under his breath as he got in closer and managed a couple of blows - forgetting to hold back, but not caring because he was going to be lucky to get in more than that.

Another shift - an aura he didn't recognize. When his own weapons got turned against him, he realized he was feeling his own.

He pieced together what was going on just in time for Velvet to get him pinned to the mats.

The pictures - it had to do with the pictures he was sure of it.

Her aura shifted back to normal and he relaxed as their partners came over to congratulate them. He couldn't be upset - her weapon was brilliant.

Maybe she'd be up for a rematch once she'd healed.

The thought made him grin - he was looking forward to it.