Ivo stuck to the sidelines while Davi and Alina commanded the centre of the terrace, walking in wide circles around each other as they explained things to Ivo.
"Usually you won't have this much space," Alina said, gesturing towards the empty terrace, encompassing the discarded trash, the upturned patio chairs, the sawed off oil barrel showing the vestiges of the last time someone cooked on it.
"More often than not, there will be all kinds of obstacles in your way," Davi agreed.
"But obstacles can also present an opportunity," Alina grinned. "A loose sidewalk brick is a great blunt weapon."
"We'll have time for that later," Davi said, afraid she would get carried away.
The two of them stood away from each other at a distance of about three meters, while Ivo leaned on his elbows against the metal railing and watched.
They started drawing tighter circles around each other, in an almost dance-like pattern. Ivo had no idea what was going to happen, until Alina threw a silent punch in Davi's direction that he sidestepped so effortlessly it seemed they had rehearsed it beforehand.
"Always pay attention to your opponent's moves," Davi said, as he and Alina resumed their prowling dance. "Not only their eyes, but all of their body language. You never know when a tense situation can escalate into a brawl, and it pays to be prepared for violence at all times."
A rueful smile cut across Alina's lips. "What's that thing you always say?"
"There is no worse violence than that we already suffer daily." Davi looked in Ivo's direction, his gaze accessing. "I don't expect him to understand it."
Ivo bristled but didn't say anything. There was no point. Davi would keep thinking of him a certain way until Ivo proved him wrong.
Also, he didn't want to admit that he saw the violence, maybe he didn't understand it like Davi and Alina did, but he saw it. He saw the homeless people, the barefoot children, the buildings crawling with people while the lux had vast swaths of free space.
He saw the violence.
"It just means that you shouldn't be afraid," Alina said, throwing a brief smile Ivo's way. "The worst thing that could happen already did, so don't let the fear of a punch in the gut or a bullet through the skull stop you."
And then she launched herself at Davi with such recklessness that this time he had no hope to dodge her. He parried one punch to the face, but could do nothing about the knee aimed at his stomach.
It winded him, and he stumbled backwards a few paces, but it was Alina who ended up hissing in pain. Jumping up and down on one leg while she clutched her knee to her chest.
"Fuck forgot about that."
Davi smirked and then nodded at Ivo to approach them. He walked up to Davi gingerly, expecting a sudden attack. Instead Davi wrapped one hand around Ivo's wrist and lifted his tank top with the other.
Ivo curled his fingers reflexively when Davi pushed his palm against his hard abdomen.
"What do you feel?"
Davi's pale eyes bore into him intensely, he wasn't teasing, he wanted a genuine answer. Ivo tried to focus but he could only feel Davi's warm skin, faintly humid with a thin film of sweat. The grooves of his sculpted abs dug into his palm. He frowned, and pushed more firmly against the tight skin.
There was the expected firmness of well-trained muscles, but no matter how much he pushed he couldn't feel the softness beneath it.
"It's like, there's metal plate beneath your skin."
Davi nodded, and let go of Ivo's hand, who pulled it away from his skin as if scalded. "Under the muscle layer, a flexible, bullet-proof alloy."
"Hurts like a bitch," Alina said, gingerly lowering her leg back to the floor.
"You'll meet plenty of others with these kinds of mods in this line of work, and because they're not visible it's easy to forget about them."
"Do you have them too?" Ivo asked Alina.
A muscle in her jaw jumped. "Not my thing, but they are useful."
Davi hummed in agreement. "Which is why, your first lesson is to aim for the parts of the body that are less likely to have protective mods; under arms, neck, genital area, ears, mouth and nose."
Alina interrupted. "Mind you, this is only valuable advice if you don't see any obvious external mods." The image of Edu the bartender came to Ivo's mind; his external mods would disqualify at least two key areas. "There is no such thing as protective plate for the nose, you either have a chrome nose or a skin and bone one, no middle ground."
She gestured vaguely. Ivo understood he was supposed to infer the rest on his own.
"But you can use the mods to your advantage too," Davi said with a shrug. "If you get an opponent on his back and he has a shiny chrome nose, stepping on it might kill him instantly."
Alina hummed thoughtfully. "Good point."
She turned to Ivo and bumped her shoulders against his. "Your turn now."
---
Ivo was meant to replicate Alina's sudden attacks, now with the foreknowledge not to target his abdomen, and do his best to land a punch or a kick on Davi.
He kept his own fists raised in front of his face, just as Davi did, and began circling him, looking for his opening.
It didn't look like he would find one. Not with the way Davi's grey gaze followed his every movement.
How was he ever going to surprise him?
And then a sudden wave of inspiration hit him.
He threw a punch towards Davi's face, but went wide. Davi had to stretch out his arm to reach his fist, throwing off his stance in the process. Ivo took advantage of the momentum to sweep a foot under his knee and make him loose his footing.
Davi's knee buckled, but his hand had already closed around Ivo's fist, sending him toppling to the dusty ground after him.
He fell on top of Davi with a huff. When he blinked his eyes open he found Davi's pale optics an hairsbreadth away from his own eyes, his dark eyebrows furrowed in a glare.
"That was neither a punch nor a kick."
Ivo grinned, smug in his victory. "Still brought you to your knees."