The two walked next to each other as they returned home; there was silence even after she said she wanted to talk. She always seemed emotionless compared to when she fought, so reading her thoughts was hard. He was starting to believe she was terrible at conversation, which would be a relaxing thing to know. It made her more vulnerable and made him feel more well-adjusted; he made a friend on the first day.
"So, what exactly did you want to talk about? I hope it's not another round of combat." He said jokingly. She turned to look at him, holding his gaze for a bit before shaking her head.
"I have my limits, and frankly, I'm tired; fighting you is difficult. I think I nearly broke my elbow, hitting your face." She massaged her elbow; He couldn't see if that was true, and she didn't even show if it hurt in her face. "Your whole body is as tough as steel, which doesn't match the ability you have...I'm just curious about that."
"Well, I ate my vegetables like a good boy. Did you?" He grins, and she scoffs and rolls her eyes.
"Fine, don't tell me; I'll learn it eventually. I'm a cunning woman." She spoke with as much excitement as ever, which made it funny as he couldn't help but chuckle. She didn't react, but he could swear she looked slightly embarrassed.
"Well, if that was your question, would you mind if I asked one of my own?" He asked curiously. She kept her gaze ahead but nodded. "How did I do...was I worse than before? Like worse than the first time we fought?"
"Better, you didn't fall for my old tricks and kept your guard up. Why did you even ask?" She seemed genuinely confused, making him feel embarrassed and worse about it.
"because...I feel like I did way worse than the first time we fought; you're practically not injured." He turned away to avoid her gaze; he didn't think her face would change or she would laugh at him. Still, it wasn't easy to admit how he felt, especially to the person responsible for this.
"Did you train to fight me today? Did you even plan for it?" He shook his head, still avoiding her gaze as he enjoyed looking up at the tree. "Well, I trained to fight you; I spent a week learning what to do if I fought you again and trained another to learn to execute it. It's not easy learning to walk on ice, you know."
He did chuckle slightly; it was not easy. He had to walk around like an animal to have a chance at it. Yet he couldn't picture her falling and was glad she was trying to cheer him up.
"Thanks. I appreciate it, Iza. Even if you said that to make me feel better, I'll be prepared to fight you next time and win." He finally met her gaze, raised his fist, and smiled; he definitely couldn't let her win again. She looked at his fist, raised her own, and fistbumped him.
That's about as much as he could handle; he stopped moving and stared at her and his fist. She hadn't just done that, right? he must have imagined she did that, right? She raised her fist and did it again, opening it right after and wiggling her fingers.
"Boom?" she said in a confused tone. He was so shocked that he had done the same thing with his hand and lowered it. "That's what friends do, right? I hope I did it right that time."
"Yeah, you, uh, nailed it. Good job." He said in almost a robotic voice, and she smiled slightly as she began walking off.
"See you tomorrow, Charlotte; I hope we get to talk again soon." She waved goodbye, and he sorta raised his hand weakly and waved her goodbye. He was in absolute shock and half expecting to wake up at any moment. He stood in place for a few minutes; he was still quite a ways away from reaching the houses, yet the thought of exploring his new home wasn't on his mind.
Iza was bad at interacting with others; there was no doubt in his mind now. She had misunderstood his intent and fistbumped him. He thought it would make him feel better. Instead, he was left flabbergasted and confused. The same Iza that kicked his ass a while ago was the same one that couldn't interact normally...guess she sacrificed her social life for combat; wait, that didn't even scratch the most critical point.
She thought of him as her friend, the same guy who clawed her leg and punched her in the face or the same guy she had frozen the head of and broken the nose of. Charlotte didn't know how to feel. Was he supposed to feel happy? Part of him did feel satisfied; hey, he had another friend! Yeah, that friend wouldn't hesitate to kill him, but what were friends for?
He shook his head and tried to focus on something else, like finding his home. Later, he could worry about the ramifications of being friends with Iza.
He didn't notice he was running until he arrived back in town. As he passed a few students talking outside their house, he saw Haze and Juba heading to their new home. He took a few seconds to explore the houses, quickly realizing his house was behind those. The ones he was looking at all had four names at the entrance and belonged to the red tunics. It seemed they had to share one house among themselves.
Following one of the paths led further back, two-story houses stood—each with a beautiful garden on the front and a plaque on top that showed a name. Eventually, he found one with his name and walked in.
He was met with a moderately decorated and clean house; there wasn't any dirt on anything, and the house was spotless. Upon entering the home, there was a door to the left and right and a door at the back behind the stairs. To the left, there was a kitchen and dining room. Walking in and checking around, he found a backroom at the back of the kitchen where different types of fruits, vegetables, and meat were displayed, as well as water, milk, and cheese. It had anything he could ever want. The kitchen had a cooking pot over a fire, various cooking utensils, and pans. He might have to take this place for a test drive; he was starving.