Unlucky number 13'th Dump

[kuriboh]

Tobias waited on the porch of a little house down closer to the "bad end" of Alecto - not that it was particularly bad (as crimes past petty things were dealt with pretty seriously,) just a bit older and slightly more run-down. This neighbourhood was one of the first built on the colony, so it stood to reason that it was older.

The child tapped his foot, and bounced a bit in place to keep warm in the chill December air. Already, there was a blanket of snow on the ground, and several snowmen and whatnot had cropped up. Tobias, frankly, was sick of snow. During most of his time on earth, all he had to look as was snow. Snow, snow, snow. There was snow in Alaska even in July.

Finally, the door creaked open, revealing a girl only a few years older than him with very pale bond hair, pulled back into a pair of short, braided pigtails. Not exactly the person Tobias was hoping for, but the sight of his friend Penny was enough to make his heart leap. They'd gone to the same school (when Tobias still went to school), and he'd had the biggest crush on her for as long as he could remember.

"uh, Hi Penny!" he stammered out, feeling his face and ears burning with a blush, "I was..uh...I was wondering if Noah was home?" Noah. That was who the young Virgo had come to see. Penny giggled and nodded, opening the door to allow him in before practically jumping on him, pulling the younger child into a tight hug, and rambling on about how much she and her brother's missed him so very much and how worried they were and why didn't he tell them he was going away? The boy blushed harder and managed to hug his friend back, but didn't really answer. A moment later, Penny pulled away, still smiling deliriously, and practically danced down the hall and around the corner, bouncing up a set of stairs to find the gentleman she was looking for,

Tobias remained near the door, and unzipped his bright red coat a bit, happily remembering everything he could about this house - it was a home formed from the war-torn remnants of a few families. Penny was easily the youngest there at only ten - sadly still old enough to remember her parents, but young enough to be able to consider the other four occupants her brothers. The next oldest was a young man of fifteen, and his brother of seventeen. The final and eldest two were also brothers, twins actually, and into their twenties now, though Tobias only ever really saw Noah.

He used to come here often after school, especially when Kazée was away - he and Penny had been in the same grade 1 class, and soon found many common interests between them, and through her met Noah, Tobias' self-appointed, de-facto big brother (as cool as Shasa was, the poor man was too out-of-touch with the age group of Pre-teens).

As if speaking of the devil, there were familiar heavy footfalls from the nearby set of stairs that Penny had dashed up, and a moment later, the tall, clean-cut figure of Noah appeared, still shaking some water out of recently-cleaned short, sun-kissed hair.

The young Virgo's smile grew and he jumped on Noah with an excited squeal, feeling more like his old self than he had in weeks. Noah caught him easily, spinning the boy around before putting him down and giving him a big, tight hug.

"Where the hell have you been kid?!" The man exclaimed, backing away a bit, to get a better look at his young friend. "Holy crap. How much have you grown?"

"Quite a bit, apparently," Tobias answered, still practically beaming, "I got home and a bunch of my clothes didn't fit any more...BUT! we fixed that problem so I don't have to go out naked!" Yup. Definitely more like his old self now.

Noah smiled and stood, reaching for his own jacket. "I suppose you wanna go for a walk, ne?" he asked, knowing perfectly well that's what the child wanted. Tobias nodded, eager to get outside - he hadn't been feeling very well recently, and the cold air helped.

Noah zipped up his coat and stepped outside, calling a goodbye to Penny (the only other one at home). Once Tobias was next to him, they looked at eachother, and grinned.

"Race?"

"Race."

And with an unspoken cue, the pair took off, heading toward the nearby park. Noah won, of course, but remarked between pants that the Virgo child had gotten faster.

Tobias blamed it on the coat.

Noah and Tobias were sitting on a bench in the park, enjoying the pleasantly chill weather, each with a styrofoam cup full of hot chocolate. Still in the Christmas spirit, couples were strolling about the park happily, maybe wishing it would snow a bit. The surrounding trees still had strings of golden lights tied up in their branches, and as the light dimmed, they lit, casting a pale gold wash over the area.

Tobias glanced at the couples over the rim of his cup, looking in particular at the couple closest to him - young, and hopelessly infatuated with one another. He'd seen the gentleman before - a mobile suit pilot, who's name Tobias couldn't remember (it sounded like "Cameron," the last time Kazée had yelled at him). The woman, an exotic-looking coordinator, he'd never seen before. In his mind's eye, the man's face and body became Tobias' own, and the woman became Penny. A tiny blush crept up his cheeks as his mind began to think about all the lovely things he'd do for her when Noah's heavy hand fell upon his head and ruffled his hair.

"You thinkin' about my little sister?" he asked with a hint of playful aggression. Tobias turned as red as his jacket, and Noah's face became alight with sheer glee, "You are, aren't you?" the young man asked, "oh damn, kid. Penny's gonna go nuts when she hears this..."

Tobias yelped and flailed wildly, all but screaming at Noah to keep his mouth shut, until Noah himself clamped a hand over Tobias' own mouth. The young man leaned in close, grinning evilly, "And what if I told you she felt the same?"

Tobias felt the blood drain from his face, then well up and flood it again in a wash of hot red. Noah leaned back with a great, rumbling belly laugh. "I'm gonna have to hook you two up now, won't I?"

Tobias wished he had a hood to hide under, but really, he hoped Noah would work fast.

~~

Kazée gave her face a good rub to restore some semblance of colour as she made her way down the busy streets to the hangar bay. From beyond the thick glass, she could see, faintly, the Tsiolkovsky-class ship pulling into ALPHA. Bless punctuality.

She waved her pass to the guards on standby (for civilians were not allowed here) and picked up her pace, wanting to meet with her guest as fast as possible. Maybe this time she'd get an answer to those curious feelings she'd had about the tall man last time he was in town (so to speak.)

At the back of her mind, however, gnawed worry, as Tobias had been feeling uncharacteristically ill that morning, but still insisted on going out to meet with his friends. It was probably just the near paranoia of an overprotective mother, but she couldn't exactly dismiss it.

Regardless, she was where she was supposed to be now, safely inside the lounge, awaiting her guest. Right on time, he marched through the door wearing the unhappy scowl that she'd learnt was his "Neutral" face.

"It's nice to see you again, Toshiro," she said, standing as he walked in, "and better still to meet in better circumstances than last time, ne?"

"Yes...it's good to be here, finally." He looked at her for a moment and begins to shuffle around in his pocket for a moment, fishing for something. "It has been awhile Ms. Virgo...and I do admit, although my luck with ships seems to never end, really. At least now I took revenge on my old ship...although the circumstances are not currently favorable..."

He finally pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights up; the combination of the nicotine and the fumes gave his nervous edge some peace.

"...which is why I'm here, you know. Who better to teach me how to fight than a mercenary of your caliber, right?" Toshiro chuckles to himself, amused by the prospect. A woman was gonna teach him how to fight…oh well, could be worse. Besides, he already knew how to fight. He was pretty damn good at it anyway…

if you ignore the countless losses of his ships.

“Alright then, boss lady: What’s first on the agenda? What shall we start with? Laps? Shooting DRAGOONs to fly thru a 1 in wide vent shaft? Use beam sabers to make shish kabob? Don’t leave me in suspense.”

His sarcasms was obvious, as was his annoyance. He really didn’t want to do this…he could be salvaging or hitting on some fine stewardess or mercenary babe…something like that.

Those, however, were the orders he gave…and he had to set an example for the SETI group.

::several weeks ago::

“Men, our group’s status as pilots, I am sorry to say, is some of the WORST excuses for piloting I have ever been forced to see! You’re pretty much useless, the whole lot of ya! If we keep up this current pace, our base isn’t going to be the only thing that gets blown up. The world doesn’t understand the fact that we are neutral, and therefore, we get picked on the most. It’s time we started to get our shit in gear…we can train faster than anyone else can. We know how to repair our suits! Let’s use the knowledge and gain better experience!”

::back to present::

“Well…it was something like that. I’m just too lazy to recall the entire story. Who really cares, anyway."

He looked at Virgo again, inhaling his cigarette again and smiled. “So teach, start teaching. I ain’t paying you to do nothing.”

Kazée covered the ground between the two quickly, and slapped the cigarette out of his hands.

"To start with, you're going to quit that. I don't care if you're a coordinator or Superman himself, you're not going to smoke." Her lips curled up in a wry grin at the shocked expression on the taller man's face.

"I think," she said with a hint of cynical amusement, "Our first lesson will be to calm down without the help of drugs. We'll work from there, ne?It seems you'll need to be taught from the inside out."

Kazée pulled away and walked over to the door, holding it open for the tall man and beckoning for him to follow.

"Come on. I want to find out more about what I'm dealing with here."

"OK shorty, let's see where you taking me." He smiles again, showing his sense of humor. The cigarette he was smoking, now lying on the ground, was gone...he felt really stressed out right now...that cig was gonna take the edge off.

Already, this whole idea was starting to suck.

His eyes shift over to the right at that...really attractive white chick in the far corner.

Her figure seemed all to familiar to him...something he liked...

Must be that ass.

"Haven't gotten laid in awhile, ya know...nothing like a quickie before dedicating yourself to a project.

"Hey Virgo: Who's the white girl over there? She a friend of yours?"

Kazée paused in her step and turned her gaze to the albino.

Ryley sighed and pulled out a notebook, adding a little tick to what seemed to be a very very long list and pulled herself away from the wall to follow the pair.Kazée turned back to Toshiro, "Yes, Ryley is a good friend of mine. If you make an attempt to even touch her, you may as well consider yourself dead, however."

Kazée led the man away from the hangar and back into the suburbs of Alecto, quickly retracing the familiar route back to her house. "It's a fair bit cleaner than it was last time you were here, but there are still three people living in here, so you'll have to forgive the mess," she explained as she went up the steps to the porch and unlocked the door. "You've had the warning about the cat though."

She creaked the door open, looking at the area in front of the door for any shoes - nothing was there, so both boys were out. She opened the door for toshiro (who had to duck) and Ryley, before kicking her shoes off.

"Lesson one in being a better fighter.." she said, when Toshiro was inside and without his own shoes, "At least LOOK calm, even when everything is shot to hell. Let's go play some poker."

"Poker?" asked Toshiro.

"Yup. You, me and Ryley here are going to play poker. Every time one of us cracks a facial expression, the other two will kick them. If you lose a hand, you get hit with a whifflebat."

"A whifflewha--!!" Toshiro began before a neon blue...thing was in his face, held by the rose eyed woman.

"Whifflebat. To the head."

"..."

That's all he could say. What the fuck were up with these conditions?

"A wifflebat? Poker? What does that have to do with piloting a mobile suit?! Ugh...at the very least, I'll give a shot."

He paused for a moment. Glancing at the both of them...

"Besides, if I play my cards right, then maybe I can get them involved in a session of strip poker later on..."

Toshrio grins widely and finally responds. "Very well. What game we playing?"

"Texas hold 'em." Said Kazée, leading the pair to the kitchen table and withdrawing a deck of cards from a nearby cabinet. "The single most frustrating card game known to mankind. Now the point here, Toshiro, is to make a poker face and not blow it, regardless of what you're faced with. It's a handy skill of dealing with clients, especially when you don't like the odds or conditions.

"Not betraying your thoughts will help pull out out of the ranks of the Johns and Janes in the world and start you on the way of getting somewhere."

She began shuffling slowly, keeping a close eye on both others at the table before dealing. "Now remember, no facial expressions at the expense of kicking, loser gets the bat, and cheat to your hearts content."

He simply calmed his face down for the moment, as their request, glancing in the direction of Ryley and glancing at her again.

"Alright then...what do ya got for me, Virgo? Give me something good for..."

He got his cards and grinned widely.

"Two Aces! Oh hell yes!"

A pair of feet found their marks in Toshiro's shins, and the young man practically jumped out of his seat. Both woman wore impassive expressions, although if one looked hard enough, Ryley's left eye was twitching, and Kazée's cheek was a bit flat - she was biting the inside to keep from laughing.

"See what we mean?" Kazée said a moment later as she and Ryley placed their cards on the table - Kazé'e hand formed a three-of-a-kind, while Ryley had two pair. Toshiro's hand amounted to the aces and nothing else.

"Oh shi-" was all he was able to get out before the large, blue, squishy bat was brought upon his head.

--On the Outskirts of Alecto—

This was part of his training, that’s what he kept reminding himself. He was trying to learn how to be more patient; to be able to fight with the big boys.

He didn’t want to fight…which was odd for a person of his anger level. He was part of the Junk Guild, not because of they were the ones who rescued him, but because the fact that he actually enjoyed this lifestyle.

Something about it gave him a feeling of homeliness he had always wanted.
…Despite the fact he was still being called John Doe.

But he took it in stride, as if it was an older brother giving him hassle. It got him questioning, though if his family, whoever they were, were like this. He had nothing to go on...except that rubble of a mobile suit he was found in.

No clues, no evidence. Just a practically destroyed mobile suit...

How lucky can ya get?

”Why the hell am I reflecting on this now...

Oh yea, I remember now, BECAUSE I’M FUCKING STUCK OUT HERE PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK!"

It had been a hr and a half right now since him and Virgo began their duel, and it was, suffice to say, a boring event. There was nothing really interesting going on with it right now, as both suits were invisible.

“This is going to be the hell that never ends!!!”

His DRAGOONS floated around the area, looking steadily for a “bite”. This fish was quite hard to catch...and Toshiro was not a fan of fishing. That required patience; which is what he what he was learning in the first place...

...the redundancy of the situation was sickening.

“Ooohhhh Toshi...” A feminine voice cried out in the darkness.

His ears picked up from the voice.

“Aren’t you ever going to show yourself?” He grunted.

“You know this battle is all about patience. Don’t think you can win so easily with your DRAGOONs flying around. You’re going to make your moves predictable eventually.

“Perhaps... but I do have one ace up my sleeve!” He smiled for a moment. “Your batteries have to run out eventually. I seriously doubt you have a fusion generator in there, so once that’s gone, I win.”

“And when would that be, John Doe.”

His DRAGOONs stopped in mid air...

“What, didn’t know I called you that, eh Johnny boy?”

There was silence on the radio.

“Johnny boy, oh Johnny-boy, The Pipes are Calling!”

Still silence.

“What, you want to do something about it? Huh?

The DRAGOONs began to retract to a blank point.

“[i]That’s a stupid move. I know where exactly you are.”

The cloak field diminished as the glow of his HiMAT system began to glow brightly.

“DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!” A loud yell came from the radio system as the blasts shot into oblivion. The firing of the system brought energy blasts after energy blasts out into everywhere.

The energy attack began in all directions; beams flying all over the place; Kazée could barely keep up with the assault of beams as she began to creep up closer toward the mobile suit.

Meanwhile, inside the suit, red lights began to flash as well as on big flashing “Overheating” sign showed up on the suit. Suddenly, the lights begin to flicker and eventually everything turns off except the emergency lights as Toshiro remained in the suit, screaming and howling like a madman.

Having little choice, the semi-shaken Kazée dragged the disabled mobile suit back to Alecto.

~~

The purple haired woman was almost afraid to face the young man as she crawled out of her cockpit. The pair were safely back inside, but Kazée wasn't sure if Toshiro was calm - or even sane for that matter. In the back of her mind, she was kicking herself for goading him like that, but it had to be done. Impulsiveness like that would get him killed on a battlefield.

As she floated across the hangar toward the...yes, the Strike Freedom (she inwardly cringed every time she saw it), she mulled over the thought that maybe this kid wasn't cut out to fight - behind the talk was a young man who was still insecure and still unsure of himself.

She landed on the Strike Freedom, nervous now, as he hadn't come out on his own yet. Kazée knocked gently on the cockpit door, calling his name "Toshiro? Toshi, I'm sorry, come on out....I'll make you dinner?"

Rage had consumed him...

but it was slowly starting to pass. What set him off had long since left his memory; only what he had done remained.

The silence of nothingness had calmed him down, as well as the sight of the woman on the other end of the suit calling towards him...it was strange how that calmed him down.

"She..really must be a kind person"

Slowly, he hit the emergency hatch release from inside the suit and began to emerge from it. His eyes met with hers, and he looked down in shame. His anger had gotten the best of it

...this Berserker fury he possessed...it would take more practice to control. He felt it inside him, slowly breaking him down from the inside out.

His rage, his fury, his power: all trying to release itself upon the world...yet he did not know how to control it.

His eyes met hers again, and this time he let himself out fully. "Yea...dinner sounds good, Virgo." There was shame in his voice, but at least he was here, trying to control it.

"I'm going to beat this thing...even if it kills me." He said, as he grabbed another cig front of Virgo again.

"Thanks for the help...sensi."

Kazée reached up and pulled the cig away before he could light it and threw it over her shoulder.

"I told you to call me Kazée, remember?" she asked, snapping her helmet off with one hand and reaching for him with the other, "You'll just have to learn how to block that kind of thing out, dear. God knows, it took me a long time to learn, too. Learning a virtue that is not in your nature is a hard feat, Toshiro, don't get down. A rage like that could be a saviour in some situations, but deadly in others. Its up to you to learn which is which. As soon as our suits are done here, we'll try again, alright?"

The young man nodded quietly, almost like he was a puppy recently kicked, and followed her into the colony proper.

~~

Dinner that night was Vegetable soup, which the pair ate gratefully, having had to wade home through knee-deep snow. They were alone in the house again, though this time, Ryley was nowhere to be found. About halfway through dinner, the phone rang. Kazée grabbed it.

"Oui, allo? Oui. Oui...Oh, Tobias...." she paused here and sighed deeply, bringing her free hand up to play with one of the many piercings on her ear. "D'accord. Oui. Oui. Je t'aime. Bon Soir."

With that, she hung up and sat down heavialy. At Toshiro's questioning look she made a face. "That was Tobias, my son," she explained, " 'Mom, I feel like crap, can I stay over with Penny and Noah?'" She ceased the imitation and sighed again, "Kid's gonna be the death of himself someday..."

"Heh...I understand the feeling. I feel a little...you know, myself. Must be something going around here."

He begins to taste the oup very softly, letting the flavor sink in. "Mmm...this tastes really good. Nothing like eating vegetable soup when it's cold and snowy outside, right?"

The taste was just perfect. The broth was tasty, the spices complimented the flavoring. To Toshiro, the soup couldn't have been any better.

"mmm...Delicious."

"Oh, and I was thinking, I actually have an idea for a really good stradgey against you for the next battle. I know how to block you out. Give my suit a couple of days of repair and rest assured, I'm going to win this time.

"<By the way, I didn't know you spoke French.>""

Kazée blinked in surprise, but settled happily a moment later. <<You too, huh? It's not that common of a language anymore. My mother spoke it, so it's my first language. Not that a lot of people ever hear me using it anymore. And thanks about the soup. Tobias loves it, so I keep a batch handy all the time.>>

She took a sip of it, and swished it around in her mouth a moment, lost in thought. "New strategy, eh?" she mused, speaking in English again, "Well, we'll have to see how that works out for you, won't we? Nobody's been able to match me in terms of stealth, but I've been at it for a decade now, so..." she chuckled a bit, replaying their last match in her head. Something about the way Toshiro used his DRAGOONs struck her as familiar, saying nothing about the suit itself. Well, now was as good a time to ask as any.

"Toshi," she said, trying to phrase her question in her mind before she spoke, "I know you can't remember, but...you you even have a clue who taught you the schematics for your suit? It...." she paused as decade-old pain clouded her heart, "It was designed by my old love you see, Tobias' father, Shinn Ikagami."

He paused for a moment to concider this..he hadn't really thought of how the suit came about to exist. The designs...the scematics...the feel. It had just come so...naturally. It was hard to explain how the knowledge of the suit came to him...but this "Shinn Ikagami" apprently designed it...

Who the hell was Shinn Ikagami?

"I'm sorry, but I really am not sure who Shinn Ikagami is. The most I remember is when I was found up to now...the rest is just a blank, really." He pauses for a moment, cocking his head and closing his eye. "Although...I do remember you mentioning a 'Shinn' the last time I was here."

But maybe this 'Shinn Ikagami' was the key to figuring out his past. If he designed the mobile suit he now pilots, maybe he can tell him who is is!

"Kazeè..you said former lover...do you know where he could be. I really need to talk to him. He might be able to explain some things...like who I am."

Kazée averted her gaze, and clenched her hand into a tight fist - knuckles whitening slowly. "He..." she began, stuttering a bit, "Shinn's been dead for ten years, Toshiro. The designs for Strike Freedom were kept in his personal files, which, to this day, I've yet to crack. The simple fact that you remembered designs so specific and with such perfect clarity astounds me to no end. I know Nic deleted his copy afterwards...."

She sighed again and put her spoon down, staring at the empty bowl sadly, allowing her thoughts to catch up to each other.

"Still. I'd be fun to see who's got the better machine after all this. Speaking of, I was reading your personnel file before you came, and it said you were found in an unknown moblie suit. Still got that kicking around, or have you slagged it by now?"

"Damnit, my one clue to figure out who I am turns out to be dead. Just my fucking luck, I suppose."

He sighs for a moment, conteplating the situation. It seems it was time for him to go do some investigation over who this "Shinn" was after the training was over and done with.

"Well...the suit I was in didn't help me much. We basically ended up scrapping it after awhile, but they did figure out it was of Orb make...possibly a M1 Astray or something. I'm suprised they figured out that much concidering what condition it was in by the end of it. The torso was pretty much destroyed. The only thing that really remained was the cockpit and the reactor. Apprently the OS was capable of being traced to Orb, which is how they found out I was from Orb.

"However...Orb doesn't know me. ZAFT doesn't know me. Done enough blood tests to leave my arm black and blue...I, apprently, just don't exist."

He licks the spoon to devour its last brothy taste and puts it back in the bowl. "Mmm mmm...good."

"But, yea, the next battle, we'll see who wins. Not to brag...but the designs and specs on that suit can more than combat yours. I've been going thru your specs over the suit and I figured out a core weakness between our suits. Which is why I'm confident on my victory...I just need to beat the taunting."

Kazée brightened at his challenge, perfectly willing to put the topic of Shinn behind her. "If you're referring to the battery, I'll have you know that I've been in that suit for over 10 years now. I've learned a thing or two about fighting power sources that outlast mine. You're not going to beat me that way.

"In fact," she continued, "you're not going to beat me at all until you learn how to deal with rapidly-changing scenarios. As we've already established, until you learn how to brush off insults and, it seems, your issue with "John Doe", you have a glaring weakness that wont take an enemy very long to discover and exploit.

"that's not to say I expect perfection and a godlike placidity from you. Hell, you're just like me - headstrong, impulsive and stubborn - but learning how to filter anything and everything out is a lesson you can't afford not to learn."

[battle goes here]

Toshiro finally gets out of his suit with a large, smug look on his face. "Can handle suits that have larger batteries than you, eh?" he laughs loudy at her in a taunting sense. "I guess that makes it a victory for me." Looking at the girl before him, as well as her annoyed face, he knew he might have done something wrong...but who cares, victory was his.

"Soo...what you got now, rabbit?"

Kazée didn't hesitate in slapping the man. It wasn't even in joking and, in hindsight, she'd never slapped anyone so hard ever or since.

"You think you're clever, do you?" She said, raising her voice to a level just below yelling, "You think "Oh-ho-ho, I'll just shut myself off from everything and WAIT for it to end.'" My God, Toshiro, I've never seen something so foolish or so selfish in my entire life. You're aware that thoughts and strategies like that will get you killed faster than someone could come to save you! And what happens if you have allies, hm?" Her voice had risen to a yell now, and the rest of the hangar had fallen silent, watching their boss ream out the man before her. "With the radio off like that, you'll have no way of knowing their status! If this had been a battle, at least one of your friends might be dead now, Toshiro!"

She said nothing after that, letting her last scream live out it's echos as her peridot eyes bored their way into his sapphires with an intent that was barely less that murderous.

"I...I..."

He looked at her eyes, and that was it. He felt something he had never felt before.

Fear.

He...he was afraid of this woman.

He had faced tougher foes, breached thru life and death itself...but this...feeling...was irrational to him.

Why couldn't he take his eyes away from hers.

"I...I don't know what to say...it...seemed like a good idea...the logic wasn't flawed in it...I ran that scenario 4 tim--"

Teamwork...what a concept: It was something he had never counted on. Not since the loss of the Reckoning.

She wanted teamwork...that's what the key was. To trust again...

"I...I'm sorry...you're right. That was just a stupid idea."

He sighed, tempted to reach for another cigeratte. He held back though; it wasn't the time for it.

"You're here to teach me...and I slack off. It isn't fair at all. I am ready to learn now...teach me to get over myself...teach me to leave the rage that boils inside of me...to leave my ego behind."

His eyes never left hers...was fear making him say this or was it pure sincerity...it was hard to tell.

"Just...don't give up on me."

She's been breathing deeply since her tirade, trying to pull herself up and over well-ingrained instincts which were telling her "SMACK HIM!!! SMACK HIM VERY HARD!!!"...but she didn't smack children unless they'd done something exceptionally stupid, and she'd already hit him for that.

She listened quietly to his apology, 'at least he's learning', and began to formulate a few plans as the last of her anger was squashed - she'd vent it closer to a punching bag... or during the execution of her plan. Finally, she looked away, thoughtfully.

"If you want to lose your ego, it's gonna require some tough love, you know. Unchecked verbal harassment, pranks....you're going to be black and blue by the time the week is over while I beat you into shape." She punctuated that last sentence with a poke to his stomach which, as she expected, wasn't flabby, but not nearly as firm as she'd like - battles of endurance were something he could easily complete provided he had the stamina for them.

"in just a few weeks," she continued, "You'll have to learn what took me several years, a birth and a death to learn. Good luck, dumbfuck."

Oh yes. This would be fun.