Sucker (ON HOLD/INCOMPLETE)

9: Kung Fu Fighting

Has anyone here read the Cardinal Bird series? It started as a Ghost Bird fanfic, and it's so good. I just finished book 5 of 6 and I'm so enthralled and... other feelings which I won't express here so I don't spoil it.

Song: "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas

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Nathan

I huffed out a breath and picked myself up off the floor.

Once again.

I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the tiny blonde next to me. She was cool, calculated in every movement she made against me.

She spoke in a soft yet assured, melodic sort of voice as she addressed the class. Only the heaving of her shoulders showed any sign of tiring. "So, you see, given the right position, you can flip a guy with relative ease over your shoulder. Has anyone seen Miss Congeniality?"

I groaned internally. Sang continued. "SING isn't a bad concept. You want to hit at vulnerable locations on your assailant's body to get away. Can anyone think of another location besides the ones from the movie?"

A tall, voluptuous woman with ebony hair spoke in a husky voice. "The throat?"

Sang clapped her hands together. "Perfect. Anyone else?"

A few more women piped up with their own thoughts, then Sang asked me to attack her.

She struck hits at my throat, my nose... my groin, not pulling any punches. I crumpled to the ground at her last shot, groaning in pain.

Sang leaned over me, a worried expression on her face. "Are you okay? You were taking my other hits so well..."

I reached out a hand for her to pull me up, using my other to massage at my nose. "Peachy. Ladies, please pair up with each other to practice, but don't actually strike each other." I shot Sang a look, and she had the good sense to look embarrassed.

We moved to the side of the room, monitoring the class. Sang looked at me, a finger poking at her lip. "I'm really sorry. I should have asked before fully hitting you."

I grinned playfully. "Well, if you wanted to hit on me..."

She raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Her posture adjusted as she turned slightly away from me.

My comment had made her uncomfortable. I tried again.

"So, how long have you been in?"

She hummed, eyes never straying from the scene in front of us. "Since I was seventeen. Mrs. Rose took me into her home and treated me as her own." She stopped there, looking lost in her memories.

Something about her compelled me to keep going, keep trying to get her to speak to me. Even if I kept screwing up when I tried. "The first time I went to camp was when I was twelve, but Owen and Sean found me—us—when I was in grade school. We were hellions."

She hummed noncommittally. I supposed she decided the conversation was over, because she was moving forward toward the women, adjusting their postures and giving commentary on their positions.

I watched her more than them, despite knowing I was there to do a job first and foremost. Ever so imperceptibly, her posture grew rigid when one of the women placed her hand on Sang's arm. Her smile grew tighter. She was uncomfortable.

I moved forward to interject, but she was already moving on. The ebony-haired woman called to me flirtatiously.

I moved toward her. She pounced. "Nathan, right?" She pouted. "I don't have a partner."

I nodded absentmindedly, my mind still entranced by the elusive woman who had captured the attentions and adoration of my former teammates. "I can help."

She—Cora, she told me—flirted as we worked, but I quickly realized it was all just for show. As we wrapped up at the end, she pulled me aside and spoke with sincerity. "Thank you for doing this. You're aware of why we're here, right?" I nodded and she continued. "Well... he grabbed me. I couldn't get free, so I just had to stay there as he..." She shook her head and grabbed at my hand. "Just, thank you. Thank you so much."

Cora walked away, and I was struck with the wonderment that I could have ever thought she—or any of them—asked for it.

Sang quietly came to stand beside me as the women filtered out of the room. "You know, we just changed those women's lives."

I nodded in wonderment. "We did, didn't we." I looked at her, only to see her already watching my face. "I mentioned I teach martial arts in Raleigh? I teach self-defense classes, but I never really interact as closely with the people I'm teaching."

She quirked a brow at me. "It reminds you why you do this, doesn't it?"

I smiled, then hesitated, considering the move I desperately wanted to make. I ran with it, blurting out, "I think I saw a café upstairs. Lunch?"

She paused, and I continued. "I think they have sandwiches, salads..." She looked wary. "Fuck thinking. Thinking hurts the team. It's just lunch."

She shifted from foot to foot, then nodded to herself. "It's just lunch," she whispered.

I guided her to the stairway, then to the little café. She ordered a grilled cheese (with apples, I noted with curiosity) and a hot cocoa. She smiled to herself when she received the cocoa, as if trapped in a memory. I recalled with a pang that Kota used to make cocoa when one of us couldn't sleep, and realized she probably was thinking of him.

I wondered why a small part of me wished I'd shared that with her. I only barely knew her, and we'd been fighting the whole time—literally.

I supposed she was my type. Active, witty, compassionate.

Beautiful.

In another life, I easily would have gone after her until she was mine. But she wasn't mine, and she never would be.

I still felt a sense of loyalty to my former teammates, my brothers, even if we were estranged now. How could I swoop in on their girl when I knew Kota, Luke, Gabriel, and Victor all wanted her back? It had been written clear on their faces, as clear as the pain which permeated the surface.

She smiled at me over her sandwich, and I felt my heart beat a little harder. I stared down at my BLT hard enough to burn a hole in it.

I was in deep trouble.