She was awake early this morning. And I was stirring. Slowly, but I was finding the task of moving difficult. I never stayed up that late and now I'm paying for it.
"Tenshinhan! Someone is here for you!" She called to me.
I threw on something that looks like I gave an effort to get up early. Just a pair of sweatpants and a sleeveless shirt. I had no idea what time it was as I walked past Sharon. I gave her a peck on the cheek to acknowledge to her that I saw her at least.
The door revealed Launch. She keeps managing to find me. And she wasn't too thrilled. And she really had no right to be upset. There was nothing but friendship between us. A distant friendship. She'd pop up seemingly every few months to see how I'm doing. That was it.
"Who's she?" She nodded past me in the direction of Sharon.
"She's my girlfriend." It felt so good saying that. I almost had a proud feeling. Hell, it was a proud feeling.
"Her!? What's wrong with me!? I had liked you way before her! Why didn't you like me, Tien?" She had her pistol to my stomach before I knew it. She was quick. I had to hand it to her.
"I wasn't interested in you. Either of you, Launch. I'm sorry. I wasn't even interested in romance. You know that."
"How coincidental. You are all of a sudden wanting a relationship and I'm not your first thought?"
"I told you, Launch. I wasn't interested in you."
"That's not right! You and me! We're supposed to be together!"
"Only you think that, Launch. I'm sorry."
She gave me a glare that can kill me twice over. Something told me this wasn't the last time I heard from her. I know how she obstanant she is. Thankfully she didn't try to use that gun on me. It would never affect me, but still. It would alarm Sharon. It was true it was bad timing if she wanted to be with me. I never wanted to hurt her feelings. I had eyes on someone else.
"She jealous?" I heard as I closed the door. Hoped to Dende Launch didn't hear that. That's all I need is these two fighting over me. When really, there was no need. My mind was made up.
"She has no reason to be. I've told her already she's not for me."
"She's got a lot to be jealous about." She purred. I moved to her, taking the white sleeveless shirt off and putting it on her. She took a deep breath from the shirt. "I love the smell of this shirt. It smells like you."
I held her close against my chest. Her cooing made me swell with happiness. Just feeling her against my body felt so good. Then, the one thing that could ruin this moment, ruined our moment. Her cell phone rang and made me jump. I was getting lost in her and now, it's being taken from me by whoever was on the phone. She took the call once she saw who it was. Her phone conversation lasted a few minutes and finally, she hung up and looked at me.
"It was my parents. They found out I am dating you. Somehow."
'That damn Yamcha!'
"I guess they want to meet you already."
I must confess, I wasn't looking forward to meeting them already. What would I tell them? All we've done was have sex. I don't even know that much about her! All I know is that she is the love of my life. Nothing would prepare me in meeting them if that was what her wish was to do.
"Uh. Do we have to go now? I don't think I am ready to do that."
"They didn't mean today, silly. I'm sure they mean soon."
I was relieved. I do want to meet them. I only just got the courage to finally meet a girl. I wonder what they'd think of me. And I wonder, with that marvelous gadget she has, if she's been chatting about me with her parents. Most likely not. But I can't help it think that way.
With Launch out of the way, and a whole day to love on my girl, I invited her outside. The mountain air was much warmer than last night. She took another deep breath of the air around her. The blonde hair blew around her almost making it look like sparkling glitter to me. This was her at peace. Probably something she's been missing out on for a long time.
"I have a question for you. And be honest."
Her question warped me back to reality. "What's up?"
She looked at me head to toe. "Do you think I can watch you train?"
Huh. Someone wants to watch me train? I would figure that would be pretty boring.
"I have a better idea." I went back inside to grab her a set of my clothes. Yeah, she'd be too small in them, but she'll thank me later for them. I returned back to her to find her sitting on a rock looking out at the small stream that snaked itself along. The tide must be low this time as I heard a fish jump as I walked behind her.
"Perhaps you would be interested in becoming my sparring partner?"
"Are you serious? You'd whoop me. I'm no martial artist." She said chuckling.
"I won't whoop you. I'll be gentle. I want to train you."
"And you want me to wear these?" She held another sleeveless shirt and a pair of pants I gave her.
"You'll be able to move around better. You'll have more freedom to move." I helped her put my old sleeveless shirt on and she looked adorable. "Besides, I think it'll be fun."
"I'll see what I can do. It won't be much." She put on the baggy pants and gave me her workout outfit.
"The whole idea of sparring is to improve in areas you need work in. Not to cream one other. Plus, it is a great way to lose your stress."
"Is that why you're so calm?"
"I'm not always calm. Yesterday was proof." I said as I started stretching. It's been a few days since I did anything that came to my training. "Come on, this'll be just like your gym workout." I reached for the sky and stretched out all my muscles.
"Should we not spar near your home?" She stretched out a little as she squatted down, working on her legs.
"We're not going to go crazy. Just a few skills. We will start slow."
She approached me. Kind of giving me the signal she was ready. I squared off with her and I think I scared her.
"Don't be afraid. Give me your strongest punch."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Let me have it."
She didn't hesitate twice. She clenched her left fist and swung. The punch felt like a butterfly landing on me. As expected. She did have good form though. She took another windup and surprised me by giving me a fast right jab.
"That's my girl. Show me what you got." I was getting excited. Me and my girlfriend. Sparring? How cool was that?
Her punches because a little more vicious. She was slowly becoming a little warrior. I had to block a few kicks as well. She took that upon herself. It felt like, to her, that she was back at the gym and letting her punching bag have it.
"Slow down. You're getting too fast for yourself." I said after she tried to land a punch to my face.
"You wanted me to bring it." She wiped some hair from her face. Her cheeks were painted a rosy red.
"I did say that. But not like that. You're working too hard to land the perfect punch. Clear your mind. I can read all your movements before you do them."
"You can predict my punches?"
"Right before you do them. Think of your opponents movements. Think of what I would do."
"I'm not psychic, Tenshinhan."
"I know that. But if you were to punch me, I would block it. Think of a different way to get through my defense. I know you can do it."
She probably thought I was nuts. But it's true. Punching bags don't fight back or defend. She was treating me like a punching bag and I wanted her to learn that there's other ways to surprise me.
She raised her arms up to guard herself. Not sure why she was guarding herself. I wasn't planning on fighting back. Definitely not to her.
Her lips moved subtly. I easily made out what she was saying.
"Think. Think. Think."
"Your thoughts are running around in your head. Clear your head. Then attack. It'll come more natural."
She reproached me slowly and I defended myself. I could see her mind clearing just as a soft breeze passed through the mountain pass. It brought her a sense of ease.
She did a spinning back kick to try to knock me off my feet. I caught her leg before it made contact. I was about to correct her but she actually swung her other leg and it made contact. The force actually made me stumble back and made my nose bleed a little. I was absolutely proud of her.
"How's that?"
"That was excellent. And you said you knew nothing about martial arts." I put my hands on my hips.
"I don't. I just remember seeing that in a movie. I wanted to try it."
I burst out in laughter and she joined. I never had so much fun sparring with someone. And I didn't have to worry about bringing out all my strength and using all my tricks and then feeling like I was half dead by the end of the day. This was actual martial arts at its simplistic state. No fancy moves or energy blasts. Just hand to hand combat. And she was pretty good at it.
The evening fell as fast as the morning rose and we both tried to watch something on TV. I had whipped up something simple to eat, we showered and I was currently adjusting the cable antenna to see if anything came in.
"You said Yamcha got you this TV?"
"Yeah." I said from behind. "He wanted me to watch the ball game."
"Is it a smart TV?"
I popped my head out like a gopher. "It doesn't seem like it. I'd say it's a stupid TV. It doesn't do what it's built to do."
She chuckled a little and began shuffling around. "Where's the manual for it?"
"Somewhere in one of those drawers." I gave up moments later and stood in front of her as she read from the manual. The snow on the TV was all I was getting.
"This is a smart TV. I can use it to cast stuff from my phone to the TV."
She found Yamcha's ball game. It was playoff season and the Titans had a ten run lead. It was definitely a slug fest. Both pitchers were terrible and it came down to the words I gave Sharon earlier. About being predictable. It was the bottom of the fifth and several players on the Knights had been hit by a pitch. I could see Yamcha face palming on second base. I guess they needed him there this game so he could laser any plays to him to get the runner out. This was an obvious pitchers fluke and the coach decided it was time to switch.
"Baseball is so lame anymore. That's why I'll watch hockey any day." She said as she rested her head against my shoulder.
"I don't even know what is going on." I threw my arm over her shoulder to allow her access to my warmth. It seemed to make her cozy after a while as she held me around my stomach.
"I'm getting sleepy." She yawned.
"We can go to sleep early if you want."
She made no response. I thought for a minute she actually fell asleep in record timing.
"Oh come on! What are you doing! Yamcha would have had that ball!" She threw her arm wildly at the TV as she watched a player drop the ball in center field.
I visibly jumped from the sofa, causing her to look over her shoulder at me.
"Sorry about that. These guys suck so bad. Makes you wonder how these two even made it to the playoffs."
"There's even worse teams then these two obviously. It's fine. Clearly this is making you upset. We can change it if you want to."
"I may take your offer for an early retirement." She slouched deeper into my lap.
"I could too. That training is what I needed to help myself fall asleep tonight."
We both simultaneously agreed that it was well past bedtime. Yamcha would be upset that we didn't stay up to watch the playoffs. Something I did not concern myself with in the end.
Both of us got comfortable, me spooning her close to my form. It was like a great comfort to me having her in my embrace.
"I love you, Tenshinhan."
Was the last thing I heard before I was swept away into one of the deepest sleeps I've been in.