"The Underground Fighter and His Kitten"
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Sasha "Kayo" Sokolov is a Russian fighter who was sent to America at a young age. One day, he met a young girl by the name of Everleigh Wilson, who taught him how to speak English, and helped him with his s...
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I can count on one hand how many time I've had fun since coming to America, and most of those times involved Everleigh. It wasn't like I would ever admit that out loud, but she always knew just how to peel back the walls I spent years putting up. There was something warm about her eyes she squinted with every laugh, or maybe it was her big smile that was contagious. Somehow, I found myself laughing as she went for a punch that I managed to duck. She put so much power into her swing that she managed to fall into me, knocking me down on the floor with her on top of me.
She was laughing harder than ever. There were tears collecting in her eyes.
"I really am bad at this, aren't I?" she asked me after her laughter began to die down. Her smile was still prominent on her face and just as I said, it was the most contagious thing I'd ever witnessed. Even I began to smile at the sight of it.
"Bad? No. Amateur? Definitely," I answered.
She used her gloved fist to tap my chest like a warning. "At least I'm not bad," she said. "This is actually kind of fun. I'd like to do this more."
"We can. Anytime you'd like to," I said. There was a moment she glimpsed into my eyes. It only took a moment and single curl to escape from her ponytail for me to push it out the way. A moment for the intensity of every emotion I felt around her to become so strong. I could only focus on her full two-toned lips that just appetizing the closer they grew to my own. I placed my palm on her cheek, pulling her closer toward me just as Charlie came back.
"Am I interruptin' sum'n'?" Charlie asked with a knowing smile on his face. I didn't care if Charlie was watching or the president of the United States, I was going to kiss her, but it seemed as though she had other plans because she quickly got off of me.
"Not at all. Sorry, Charlie," Everleigh said, returning his smile. I rolled my eyes and stood up, glaring at Charlie. He caught my glare and his smile only grew.
"Friends my ass," I heard him mutter underneath his breath. If I heard him, I was certainly positive Everleigh heard him, but she probably just pretended not to hear him, doing what I did almost every day.
I stood up to join Charlie for training. Even though we got to fool around with Everleigh joining us, it was time to get back to business. Charlie already had pads on his hands, ready for our training.
"Everleigh, you can use what you wanna. My gym is your gym. Kayo, here, is about to begin his trainin'. We don't wan'cha getting hurt," Charlie told her, taking the words right from my mouth. I side-eyed Everleigh to see her smile grow as she nodded her head at Charlie. She carefully got out of the ring and made her way down to the floor.
