Gunter was still in the kitchen area by the time Zeven returned. A cup of coffee with only two spoonfuls of sugar waited on the counter for him. Zeven yawned as he sat on the bar stool. Gunter was busy with something, he always found a way to keep himself occupied.
"You can go back to sleep if you need to. I doubt she'll be up for a few more hours. She was out pretty cold." Gunter turned to Zeven and raised an eyebrow asking a silent question.
"We both know that won't happen." Zeven laughed dryly before trodding off with his coffee to another room in the house.
Just as Gunter predicted Chris didn't make her way to the kitchen until close to midday. It was the best she had looked since her arrival. While the bags under her eyes still persisted, they looked lighter. A calm, neutral, almost pleasant facial expression sat on her face. She thanked Gunter as he placed a lunch plate in front of her and a cup of water to her left.
Gunter felt relieved seeing her in a better place than last night. She looked less broken, healthier. Chris hurriedly ate the food place before her, without much question. She had just finished taking her last bite as a sweaty Zeven barged into the kitchen.
His sweat covered him giving him a sheen. His shirt had the sleeves removed and his trousers covered just above his knees. His hair was matted down to his forehead giving him almost a school boy look. Chris looked him once over before turning back to her now empty plate. She reached out for her glass of water and had brought it halfway to her lips when her hand was commandeered and escorted to Zeven. He had bent down and rested his other elbow on the counter as he drained her cup.
Chris didn't say anything, but squinted her eyes as she looked up to him challengingly. Zeven caught her gaze in the corner of his eyes and turned to face her. He smiled as she frowned. "Cute, very cute Zeven." "I am aren't I." He smirked as he held her hand captive. The empty glass tipped as he tilted his hand and brought it to his lips. He could practically see the anger rise from Chris. He wanted to see what she would do.
"Stop thinking of me as a woman. At the moment we have a goal to accomplish. I won't have you being distracted or distracting me. You are a general, I expect you to know how to keep your little soldier in line." The emphasis placed on little made Gunter snicker in the background, as Chris looked straight into Zeven's eyes.
Zeven had to admit, she was in rare form. A deflection, a plan, and an insult, it was a work of art. "You know in my country it is not a sin for a man to love another man." Zeven wriggled his eyebrows. Chris frowned, as usually he managed to completely miss the point. She sighed as she removed her hand from his grip. "While you are here we should start working on a solution to this situation." Zeven smiled, he was having the time of his life. It was time to be serious. However he couldn't help having one more word. "You'd be a lot more pleasant to deal with if you lost the frown."
"You'd be a lot more pleasant to deal with if you lost the multiple personality disorder." Gunter turned his head to the last bit as his eyes shot open. He hastily ducked out of the kitchen before proceeding to laugh out loud. She hit the nail on the head. She had a regal, smart-ass demeanor this morning. Apparently a good night's rest had done more for her than he originally thought. Gunter hadn't felt any threatening behavior from either of them, just birds boasting their plumage. So he figured it was best to excuse himself before he had a laughing fit in front of them and looked like he was taking a side. If the current conversation was any indication, the two of them had reached a sort of understanding and hopefully the worst was behind them.
Zeven's mouth flew open in shock. He paused a minute before doubling in half with laughter. Of all the things she could have said, that was not where he thought she would go. "I was being serious." Zeven couldn't even respond; he was struggling to even breath as he continued to guffaw at her.
With tears in his eyes he offered her his outstretched hand. "Come on." "Where are we going?" When Chris didn't take his outstretched hand he wrapped his arms around her waist and hoisted her up over his sweaty shoulder. "Outside. I think you'd like to punch me about now."
After a half felt apology, Zeven had managed to get Chris outside and ready to spar.
He was right, she did want to hit him. She was decked out in blow absorbing gear. Her chest was completely covered by what felt like a very large pillow as well as her hands which had mitts on the palm used for taking a hit.
"Gunter is too old to be doing this kind of thing, hence you being here." Chris glared his way. She wasn't the one doing the hitting, she was the punching bag. "I am going to pay you back for this." "you'll get your turn."
Zeven was very detailed in his explanations of exactly where he would be hitting and how he would be doing so. It didn't take long for a fresh layer of sweat to form on his brow. Chris had also found herself beginning to perspire, it wasn't the same as throwing a punch but it worked her muscles and cleared her mind of all the things weighing her down. She had never had the chance to be on the receiving side of a training session. Due to her 'peculiar' situation she had always worked with private tutors aimed to build up the muscles that would give her a more masculine appearance.
She focused on his words and where the hit would happen and felt everything else slip away. They progressed to several hits in one pass before they needed to stop for a break. Chris had to pry the mitts off her sweaty hands.
"Your turn. I'm going at you from behind and I want to see if you can flip me over."
"Excuse me?"
"I have wondered about the logistics of this for a while, and let's face it, Gunter is a bit on the frail side for this sort of thing."
Zeven wasn't even looking her way as he called out to her. He had made his way back out to the middle of the space. She saw him wave his hand to becon her over and considered ignoring him, but after remembering all this was for the sake of peace, she begrudgingly walked over.
When he turned around and saw that she was behind him he smiled. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he positioned her slightly to the left as he spoke rapid fire. "I'm going to run at you from behind, after avoiding my reach grab my arm and pull me forward, hard. With any luck, you'll be able to throw me to the ground in front of you. Giving you the advantage. Ready? Go!" When he was talking he had moved behind her and was now running at her back.
Startled by the sudden rush instead of catching his arm she stepped to the side and Zeven was sent tumbling forward into the dirt. On the ground Zeven turned his head very slowly to Chris. His face scrunched as he cocked his head to the side. It was a clear sign of disbelief, mixed with a bit of unstable. It would be a lie to say that seeing him in the dirt didn't bring a sense of euphoria to Chris.
Zeven stood up and dusted his clothes, before making his way back to Chris. He put his hands on her shoulders and roughly turned her around. He took a few steps back before charging her again.
This time Chris did not step out of the way, she caught his arm, but instead of flipping him over, she pivoted out of the way and kicked his legs out from underneath him. Once again Zeven was in the dirt. He took a deep breath to collect his thoughts before slowly standing again. "Perhaps I went too fast with the explanation."
Taking another breath he stood behind Chris, he put a hand on her right hip to keep her from stepping out of the way again. The other arm sat over her left shoulder. He wasn't flush to her body, but she could feel him behind her. "Grab my arm." She did. "Closer to the shoulder." She choked her hand higher up, now one was at his shoulder joint and the other just above the elbow. "Now pull forward hard and quick, let my weight do most of the work. Make sure to fold forward in a way that doesn't hurt your back. Think inertia. All you have to do is start the movement and the rest will happen. Ready this time?"
He waited for her response before taking a deep breath, the hand that rested on her hip fell off to the side. "Just out of curiosity, did they have you on any special diet? I noticed that you don't have much in the chest region-" In a flash he was sprawled out on his back with Chris looking down at him. A goofy grin crept up his face. "Genuinely though, did they?" Chris narrowed her eyes, "Yes, Chicken and rice. Everyday at the castle since I was twelve. Standard war rations during battles, it's hard to gain weight off those." There was no emotion in her voice, just facts.
"Then my friend you have missed the best things in life."
The two of them stayed out there for the better part of the day.