Summary: Sora's first training session with Jolyon and Xanthe.

Stories That Must Be Read Before Reading This One-Shot: Hazel's Mission and chapters 2-4 of Priya's Pain, or you won't know who these characters are.

…

Sora entered the training hall to see a black-furred platypus and a yellow-furred platypus already there, along with the agents assigned to train them: Peter and Patty, the latter of whom had a whistle around her neck. As Sora went over to the four, Patty was the first to spot her.

"Ah, you must be Sora, correct?"

Sora nodded.

"This is Jolyon…" Patty indicated the black-furred platypus. "…and Xanthe." The yellow platypus. "Jolyon and Xanthe, this is Perry the Platypus's younger sister, Sora."

"Hi," said Sora, smiling at the platypuses.

Jolyon gave her a smile back and Xanthe waved. They both seemed as nervous as Sora herself was, which was rather comforting to Sora.

"Now, Patty and I need to sort out our first exercise," said Peter. "While we're doing that, I want you three to chat amongst yourselves and get to know each other better."

Peter and Patty walked to the other side of the gym and began sorting something out.

Sora watched them for a moment, before she heard a calm voice from behind her say, "So you're Hazel's father's sister?"

"Hazel…yes!" Sora was embarrassed that she had taken so long to remember who Hazel was. "Yes, I'm Perry's sister."

"Isn't Perry over twenty years old?" Xanthe said, frowning. "You don't look that old."

Sora felt herself grin like an idiot as Xanthe blushed. "Okay, that came out wrong."

"No, that's okay." Sora suppressed a laugh. "Well, my mom was nine years old when Perry was born. She was nineteen when I was born."

"Wow, so you're ten years younger than Perry?" asked Jolyon.

Sora nodded. "That's right."

Sora and Jolyon gazed at each other for a moment. Xanthe, grinning, broke it by saying, "I'm guessing you're single, like Jolyon?"

Jolyon flushed and nudged Xanthe. Sora put her hand over her mouth to stifle a half-embarrassed giggle.

"I thought you two were together," Sora stated.

Jolyon and Xanthe shot each other looks that were half amused, half disgusted. "We're more like brother and sister," Xanthe said.

"That explains the reaction, then," laughed Sora.

At that moment, Patty came back over. "Alright, everyone. For our first training exercise, we're going to try teaching you a few very basic moves. A lot of the complex moves that you will see being used by OWCA agents are actually just very basic moves but upgraded, for want of a better word."

Peter dragged three dummies into a line with a few metres' space between them. Each dummy had a stand and a pole, which placed the dummy at about chest height. They were made of white material and in the shape of a human torso without arms. Each one was connected to the pole by a spring, meaning it could move from side to side and front to back.

"These dummies will be your victims," Patty grinned. "First of all, we just want to see what you can do. We will give you five minutes to attack the dummy."

Sora went to the dummy on the left. She gently pushed it, watching it wobble backwards and forwards. When she heard Patty blow the whistle, she punched the dummy in the face. This was rather satisfying so she did it again. Unfortunately, this made the dummy fly back forwards with more force and hit Sora in the face. Despite this, she grinned and pretended she was fighting a real opponent.

Ah, so you think you can get the drop on me?

Sora kicked the dummy in the torso and ducked when it rebounded.

Ha ha! I have outsmarted you!

All of a sudden, rage overwhelmed Sora. She remembered the people that had held her parents captive and had killed her father. Pretending that this dummy was one of those people, Sora viciously hit the dummy over and over again, not even caring that her knuckles were beginning to bruise.

Then she felt someone catch her wrist. Sora turned to see Jolyon, a sympathetic expression on his face, holding onto her wrist. She glanced round him and saw Peter and Patty holding the dummy still for Xanthe while the yellow platypus tried and failed to hit it. None of them had noticed Sora's rage.

As Jolyon let go of her wrist, Sora calmed down and let her arms fall to her sides. "Thanks," she said quietly.

"I know what it means to be angry with someone," Jolyon said, equally as quiet.

"It's not just that."

"I know," said Jolyon, and Sora realised that he really did know.

At that moment, Patty came over. "Is everything okay here?"

Sora opened her beak to give a lie like "we were just comparing strategies" but Jolyon got there first and simply said, "Yes."

Patty looked confused but she said, "If you're sure."

She clapped her paws and stood back, addressing all of us. "Okay, now we're going to teach you some basic moves."

Two and a half hours later, Sora was sweaty but very pleased with herself. She had mastered three of the four basic moves that Peter and Patty had taught her, including a spinning kick, which Peter had said was quite a hard move to master. When asked how she had grasped it so quickly, Sora had grinned, shrugged, and said, "It's in my blood."

She had left the training session five minutes early so she could get in the shower first. As she dried herself off, Xanthe came up to her in the girls' changing rooms. The yellow platypus was grinning from ear to ear. Sora couldn't help smiling herself as she looked at her friend's smug face.

"Okay, I'll ask: why are you looking so happy?"

"Jolyon has a crush on you," grinned Xanthe.

Sora raised her eyebrows as she put the borrowed towel away. "And how do you know that?"

"He told me," Xanthe proclaimed proudly.

"And did he ask you not to tell me?" Sora grinned.

"Maybe," said Xanthe, drawing out the "ay" sound rather long.

Sora chuckled and headed towards the door. Xanthe blocked her. "Seriously, he really likes you. I've never seen him so embarrassed when I said he was single."

"You say that to all the women Jolyon meets?" Sora teased.

"No, seriously. Trust me, it takes a lot for Jolyon to get embarrassed. Do you like him back?"

"I-." Sora hesitated, feeling a blush creep onto her face. "I guess I do. I don't really know him."

"So you don't really know him and you think you like him?"

"Uh, I guess."

"So if he asks you out on a date will you say yes?"

"Why are you pressing me on this?"

"Because Jolyon really is like my older brother and he deserves a shot with someone he really likes, which is you."

Sora chuckled again. "Then I suppose I could take the opportunity to get to know him a little better."

Xanthe actually squealed. "Great! Hey, can I come as Jolyon's plus one?"

"No," grinned Sora, opening the door.

Xanthe followed her out of the changing rooms and across the gym towards the main doors. "Can I eavesdrop?"

"No."

"How about picking the venue?"

"Xanthe, he hasn't even asked me out yet."

As Sora left the gym, she immediately spotted Jolyon, who was standing by the wall opposite the door, looking rather awkward. She stopped in the doorway. Xanthe "accidentally" pushed Sora closer to Jolyon and disappeared out of sight.

"That was a really interesting session," Jolyon said quietly.

"Yeah, it was." Sora was also feeling awkward. "Hey, thanks for stopping me with the punching thing. That could have turned out nasty."

"It's no problem. Are your knuckles okay?"

Sora looked down at her hands, which looked rather red. "They'll be fine."

"Okay…" Jolyon appeared to be wrestling with the words. "Um…are you doing anything now?"

"Well, I was going to see my brother and tell him about my first training session, but…" Sora decided to help him out a bit. After all, the poor platypus was clearly nervous. "…I'm free for dinner."

"Oh!" Jolyon stood a little straighter. "Oh, that's-that's what I was thinking. So…we could go to Casa Blanca? It's a great restaurant where your niece Quinn works."

"Does it have anything to do with Morocco?"

Jolyon chuckled. "Oddly enough, no." He paused. "Interested?" he asked hesitantly.

Sora let a warm smile flow onto her face. "Jolyon, I would love to go to dinner with you. Is it a date?"

Jolyon bit his lip anxiously. "Do-do you want it to be a date?"

Sora's smile changed to mischievous. "That wouldn't be so bad."

"Then yes. It's a date."

"Alright, so how about you come by my house at six and we can walk down there together?"

Jolyon nodded. "Yes, that sounds doable."

"Great, see you there."

Sora headed down the corridor to see her brother and Jolyon walked in the opposite direction to catch up with Xanthe. As they walked, both of them fist-pumped the air.

…

AWWWW! *squeals* So in Hermes's Struggle, I showed that Sora and Jolyon were mates, but with no context as to how they even met, let alone fell in love. Does this satisfy you? Because this might be one of my favourite things I've ever written ^_^