2 Pistols and a Hoodie (a R6S fanfiction)

Chapter 14: Living With The Pain

Song of the day: Retro Funky Sundance Remix by Persephone

The sun shone over a quiet Hereford Base. There wasn't much activity other than a few recruits patrolling the gates. The story was mostly the same inside. Everyone was either sleeping or being lazy. 

Or, at least, everyone except Nathan.

He was working his ass off at the gym. I believe you don't need me to explain why. If you need to, read the last chapter. Naturally, since he was in a gym room, the punching bag became his victim. 

Meanwhile, Caveira was waking up in her bed. Her first impulse was to check on Nathan. Of course he wasn't there. She hurriedly pulled on a hoodie and went looking for him. She went to the Blackjack garage. Along the way, her mind was running through countless bad scenarios. Truth be told, in the months that led up to today, she had begun to think of him almost like a brother. 

He wasn't there. So she checked the shooting range. He wasn't there as well.

Caveira was about to go tell Harry that Nathan was missing, but then she remembered the gym. Sure enough, Nathan was there, punching the sandbag with gusto. "You good, amigo?" "Yeah, couldn't be better." "Stop lying. You never use the punching bag unless you're in a bad mood." "The perks of being an interrogator, huh? You know everything about someone just by living with them for months." "That's not how it works..." "Shame you didn't become a psychologist, huh?" 

"That's not-" "How interrogation works, I know," laughed Nathan hollowly, plonking down and taking a swig of some energy drink. "I got worried sick looking for you, and here you're just drinking something and don't give a fuck!" "Nobody told you to worry." "What am I going to to with you..." Nathan finally looked straight at Caveira for the first time in days, and his eyes were bloodshot. "There's nothing you can do, Taina. I let him go. I let him die. I could've saved him. But I did nothing. I let him go and kill himself when we could've thought of something." 

Taina put a reassuring hand on Nathan's shoulder and squeezed it gently. "You couldn't help it." "Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that I let him die. On top of that, I just killed someone. It's the motherfucking trolley paradox all over again." 

Realising Nathan needed something to take his mind off, Caveira had an inkling of what to do. "Wait here, I'll be right back." "Where you going to?" "To get my gym stuff!" Nathan raised an eyebrow, but didn't question any further.

Moments later, Caveira came back, this time in a sports bra under a tight-fitting black sports vest, with a pair of yoga shorts. She had tape wrapped around her hands, like kickboxing fighters. "You wanna spar?" "Why?" "Sparring keeps your mind off things and makes you focus on your opponent. In this case, me. Plus, you won't have time to think much against me." "怕你咩 (Ya think I'm scared)?" grinned Nathan, getting up and clambering into the ring. "I know for a fact that you practice jiu-jitsu, so you should be quite good." "Quite good? I'm legendary!" taunted Caveira. "Then you've met your match," retorted Nathan, dropping into a very wavy, familiar stance. Caveira remembered seeing Jackie Chan doing something like it, but then she wasn't a very big fan of him.

"What's that?" asked a very intrigued Caveira. "It's drunken boxing, but I made the movements less exaggerated than the real one." "Fine, let's make this an MMA match, so all martial arts are allowed." "Alright, you ready?" "Yeah." 

The two circled each other warily, until Caveira lashed out with a front kick. Nathan folded his body around her leg, narrowly missing it, and instantly retaliated with a flurry of fists. "So (pant), drunken boxing is just (pant) wildly swinging around?" asked Caveira, managing to block all of Nathan's blows. "Part of it, yeah. But then you still have to be conscious of your surroundings." Caveira spotted an opening, and went for Nathan's spine with a kick, but it was a bait. Nathan instantly leaped up, barely missing the kick, and upon landing promptly delivered a shotgun dropkick to Caveira's chest. She held up her hands, but the blow was enough to send her staggering onto the ropes. Nathan didn't give her time to recover, and kept going at her.