choke! JASON GRACE

ɪᴠ. ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ɢᴏᴅꜱ, ꜱʜᴇ ᴄᴀɴ ᴅᴀɴᴄᴇ!

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𝖎𝖛. 𝖇𝖞 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖌𝖔𝖉𝖘,
𝖘𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖆𝖓 𝖉𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖊!
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-♥-♥-♥-♥-♥-♥-♥-♥-♥-♥-♥-♥-♥-

Sadly, Loveday did not get her hands on a whip. As soon as Dakota had seen her wandering up to the weapons' rack with a shit eating grin on her face, he'd spun her around and shoved a short sword in her hand. "It's gladiator fighting," he'd told her. "Just try not to stab yourself by mistake and you should be ok."

Loveday had stormed off in a huff, sword coming dangerously close to cutting Gwen's arm off as she tried to slow her down.

Now here she stood, sword in one hand and shield in the other. "I look like an idiot," she told Reyna, looking down at her weaponry. "I feel like one of those little marionette soldiers you see at puppet shows."

Reyna, who was gearing up for the opening fight of the day, turned to give her an odd stare. "You're in the wrong cohort, Loveday. The fifth stand over there."

Loveday squinted over at where Reyna was pointing. Jason stood at the front of the group, bronzed arms on display as he sharpened his sword. Wow, she thought to herself, son of Jupiter indeed.

"Close your mouth," Reyna snorted. "You'll catch flies."

Loveday shrugged and gave her an easy smile. "The view is worth it."

The small smile on Reyna's unmoving face was enough to convince Loveday that she and the Praetor were in agreement. "Dakota's report said you haven't been particularly skilled with any sort of traditional Roman fighting styles; they won't go easy on you, you know."

Loveday shrugged, digging the heels of her trainers into the dirt. "Maybe a near death experience will activate my memory- wait, Dakota actually wrote a report?"

"Report would be an overstatement," Reyna winced. She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper with a very bad stick man and a variety of symbols. Little markings out of ten were scribbled in underneath. "6/10 for sword fighting. Not terrible."

"But I must have fought," Loveday insisted. "I have all these little scars, calloused palms. I know I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, but I'm not stupid, Reyna."

"I suppose we'll find out," Reyna smiled wryly and pulled her helmet over her head. "I'm up."

"Good luck," Loveday grinned, beginning to trail over to the fifth cohort as Reyna geared up to fight a trio of children of Mars.

Reyna flicked her braid over her shoulder and raised her weapon. "I won't need it."

Loveday blinked slowly. Hot.

She watched with wide eyes as Reyna sauntered off into the middle of the amphitheatre, edging her ear around to her own cohort. "Reyna's a legend," she whispered into Gwen's ear when she arrived. "Is she single?"

"I think one Praetor's enough for you," Gwen laughed, watching as Jason turned around to offer her a blinding grin, upper lip rippling under his scar. All of a sudden, any stirring thought she was having about the woman dominating the battlefield disappeared. "Stop drooling," Gwen said.

Loveday snorted and ran her thumb over the corner of her lip. She fluttered forwards, sidling up next to Jason with a pretty smile. "I wanted to wish you luck."

Jason blushed, looking down at her with his bright blue eyes. If Loveday squinted, she could just about manage to picture them as tiny fragments of the sky above. "Thank you," he said. "But I don't need luck  to win."